Men in France have a 26 per cent higher carbon footprint than women, according to new research exploring how gender impacts individual climate impact.
Researchers say this is largely due to increased consumption of what the working paper calls “gender stereotypical” goods: cars and red meat. Food and transport account for half of the average French person’s carbon footprint.
The study of 15,000 people in France also found that the gender gap in emissions may be as large as the gap between lower- and higher-income individuals.
How do gender norms shape individual carbon footprints?
The research, which has not yet been peer reviewed, comes from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Center for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST).
It found that household structure also plays a key role in shaping this carbon footprint gap. People in a couple tend to converge on food, meaning single women often have a less carbon-intensive diet. Gender differences in transport footprints were especially large when children were introduced into the mix.
Researchers say this shows that who people live with – and how their roles are divided – can shape their climate impact.
“Our results suggest that traditional gender norms, particularly those linking masculinity with red meat consumption and car use, play a significant role in shaping individual carbon footprints,” says Ondine Berland, fellow in environmental economics at LSE.
“This points to the potential for information policies that challenge such norms, for example, by reframing plant-based alternatives as compatible with strength and performance.”
More research is needed to understand why men have bigger carbon footprints
At the same time, says Marion Leroutier, assistant professor at CREST-ENSAE Paris, cultural trends that promote raw meat or ‘all meat’ diets risk reinforcing these norms and increasing carbon-intensive behaviour. These trends are often accompanied by a negative rhetoric around plant-based diets.
“Interestingly, we do not find a gender gap in carbon footprints for plane, a transport mode seen as more gender-neutral than car,” she adds.
“This suggests that the gap is explained by gender differences in preferences pre-dating climate concerns.”
Controlling factors which may have an influence on the results of studies into gender gaps can be hard. When this study was adjusted for socioeconomic factors like income and education, the gap between men’s and women’s carbon footprints in France dropped to 18 per cent.
Men do need to eat more calories, but they consume disproportionately more food than women. They also, in general, have higher incomes, which previous research shows generally means higher emissions.
One 2021 study from Sweden found that what men spend causes 16 per cent more emissions than what women spend, despite the sum of money being very similar.
More research is also needed, the team explains, to understand whether these differences in carbon footprints may be down to greater concern from women about climate change and their higher likelihood of adopting climate-friendly behaviours in daily life.
