a New Report The Environmental Voting Project (EVP), which was first shared with the 19th, shows that far more women than men cite climate and environmental issues as their top priorities in voting.
Nonpartisan nonprofits focused on tailoring have won voting efforts for low-profit voters who identified climate and environmental issues as likely to list top priorities, finding women far outweigh men on the issue. Overall 62% of voters in these so-called climates are women compared to 37% of men. The gender gap is the largest among Black and Indigenous voters.
Nonprofits identify these voters through predictive models built on research being conducted among registered voters. The probability of climate voters listing climate change or the environment as at least 85% of people is defined as a top priority.
“Other political gender gaps ( [presidential] Nathaniel Stinnett, founder of the organization, said:
The model can predict the likelihood that voters will view climate as the number one problem, but it is not possible to actually determine whether these same people will vote in that respect. The report examines data from 21 states, which are a mixture of red and blue.
Where did all the climate voters go?
Based on a vote from the AP-NORC exit poll, 7% of people self-reported that climate change was their number one priority in the 2024 general elections said. Of those who listed climate as their number one priority, they voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris by a 10-1 margin.
Stinnett said the EVP findings are important. Because it points out who will lead the country in the fight against the climate crisis. “If nearly two-thirds of climate voters are women, we all need to improve our acceptance of women’s wisdom and leadership skills,” Stinnett said. “It doesn’t just apply to messaging, it applies to the way that activists and voters builds and guides movements.”
The data reveals trends, but it is unclear why gender gaps have increased in recent years. In the six years EVP collected data, the gap shrunk from 20% in 2019 to 15% in 2022 and began to rise in 2024. In 2025, the gap reached 25% points.
“I don’t know if men don’t care much about climate change. I know that the chances they’re far less than before will list it as a top priority,” he said. “Maybe men don’t care much more about climate change than before?
A survey conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication has seen similar trends in its work, a nonprofit that measures public attitudes towards climate change. In 2014, the organization’s researcher Marija Verner said there was a 7% gap between the number of American men and women who said they were interested in global warming. Ten years after 2024, that gap almost doubled to 12%.
What is the climate protest actually accomplished? More than you think.
There is evidence that climate change and pollution are impacted More women than men Both the US and the world. This is because women have the resources to protect themselves from the effects of climate change and fewer resources of caregivers, making them a greater share of people living in poverty. Especially women of color Living disproportionately at low income A community with high climate risk.
This helps explain why there is a huge gender gap between female and male counterparts of color. The EVP finds that there is a 35% gap between black women and male climate voters, and a 29% gap between Indigenous women and males.
Jasmine Gill, senior associate director at the Hip Hop Caucus, a nonprofit that mobilizes the colour community, said he wasn’t surprised to see black women prioritizing the issue. Gill is working on issues of environmental and climate justice, and she hears voters talk about climate change related to everyday issues such as public safety, housing, reproductive health and, more recently, natural disasters.
“Black women often have the weight to protect their families and communities,” she said. “They’re going to navigate things like school closures and bill surges. They’re looking at the direct impact of these things. It’s a kitchen table issue.”
The EVP survey found a larger gender gap among registered voters with the youngest demographics between the ages of 18 and 24.
Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, president of the youth voting organization Nextgen America, said that it was a trend that unfolded in elections, in addition to being a higher level of education and becoming more progressive than men.
She has seen young mothers, especially in the Latino community, worry about the health of children who suffer disproportionately from health issues like asthma. Her own son has asthma, she said.
What EVP theorizes is worth doing more research. Although the data cannot determine whether someone is a parent or grandparent, it shows that women ages 25-45 to 65 and older account for almost half of climate voters.
Still, Ramirez wants to bring more young men into conversation. Her organization is working on a gender-based strategy to reach this demographic as well. In the final cycle, they launched a campaign focused on the power of male voters. One of the central issues they are developing their message is the climate crisis. She said she thinks that progressive groups can bring more men into conversation.
“There’s something great about healthy masculinity… about wanting to protect those you love and those more vulnerable,” she said. There is an opportunity to leverage the idea of ”men who want to protect their families, loved ones and communities from the outcome of the climate crisis.”
