Women and climate change adaptation behaviour: What’s the problem and solution?

Rural women’s contribution to reacting to climate change is highly significant but has been largely marginalized due to gender roles. This gender discrimination makes them more vulnerable to a variety of threats. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the behaviour of female rice farmers in Mazandaran Province, in northern Iran, toward climate change adaptation using protection motivation theory (PMT). 173 female heads of households’ rice farmers in Mazandaran Province were selected through stratified random sampling. According to the findings, the perceived vulnerability (β = 0.19), perceived severity (β = 0.33), self-efficacy (β = 0.4), and response effectiveness (β = 0.35) of female rice farmers have a positive and noticeable effect on responding behaviour to climate change. However, the response costs (β = −0.61) have a negative but noticeable effect on their adaptation behaviour toward changing climate. Research findings also show that climate change severely damages the physical capital of women paddy farmers. The damage caused by these climate crises has a greater impact on the production capacity, product quality, production costs and food security of female heads of households. The findings of this study will help define patterns determining the adaptation of women to climate change, and public and private sector’s strategic planning and action.