Women, climate change, and violence: healthcare perspectives

This opinion article focuses on the forced displacement of women due to climate-environmental disasters in their home territories. It starts from the recent case of Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil to discuss forced displacement due to the destruction of housing and imminent risk to life, critically considering the category of natural disasters. Furthermore, it records some of the impacts of forced displacement on the lives and health of women and their families, such as exposure to gender-based violence, reflecting on care policies for women in climate-related displacement and situations of violence. An intersectional perspective guides the text to support analyses of the vulnerability and oppression women experience and the need to produce health policies for sensitive and culturally localized care. It also points out that gender, ethnicity/skin color, and nationality, among other social markers relevant to this population, attach vulnerabilities to the experiences of women in transit because of climate disasters.