Climate change is not gender-neutral. Women, especially women of color, low-income women, and communities already facing environmental burdens, experience distinct and often disproportionate impacts from climate change, pollution, and policy decisions. Yet women’s needs remain largely absent from the policies meant to protect them: WEJ's preliminary research found that only 9% of climate bills in the 118th Congress mentioned women, gender, or gendered issues.

The Women’s Environmental Justice Policy Center (WEJ) is working to change that. We conduct rigorous, accessible research at the intersection of women’s rights, environmental justice, and climate policy, and translate it into policy recommendations, public education, and advocacy tools.

Your gift to WEJ’s Research Fund will directly support two urgent research projects:

1. Women in Congressional Climate Policy

WEJ is examining whether, and how, women’s needs are included in U.S. congressional climate policy. This project analyzes climate legislation and congressional debate to identify where women are mentioned, what kinds of provisions are included, and which policymakers are championing gender-responsive climate solutions.

The findings will help advocates, researchers, and policymakers understand the scale of the gap and identify concrete opportunities to make federal climate policy more equitable and effective.

2. Environmental Hazards and Women’s Reproductive Health in the Gulf South

WEJ is also researching how environmental hazards, including pollution, fossil-fuel infrastructure, extreme heat, disasters, and other climate-related risks, affect women’s reproductive health in the Gulf South. This region faces concentrated environmental burdens alongside deep racial, economic, and health inequities, making it a critical place to understand how environmental injustice shapes reproductive health.

This research will help elevate the experiences of women in frontline communities and inform policy responses that protect health, safety, and reproductive autonomy.

What your gift makes possible

Research requires skilled staff, data collection and analysis tools, participant compensation, and more. Your donation helps WEJ compensate community members for their expertise, creating data to support lived experience. This data is turned into policy recommendations that can shape more equitable environmental decisions.

Funding Tiers
$25	Fuel the Research	Helps cover research materials, data sources, and the everyday tools WEJ needs to begin analysis.
$50	Open the Archives	Helps WEJ access academic journals, legislative records, and public-health data for both research projects.
$100	Power a Research Snapshot	Supports a short, shareable research update that makes findings accessible to advocates, communities, and policymakers.
$500	Publish the Findings	Helps transform research into a clear, public-facing brief or report with actionable policy recommendations.
$1,000+	Become a Founding Research Partner	Provides major support for WEJ’s first research cycle, helping bring both projects from question to publication by funding staff hours.

Why now

There is no U.S. organization whose primary mission combines women’s rights, climate change, national policy research, and policy recommendations in the way WEJ does. By funding this work early, you are helping build the research infrastructure needed to make women’s lives visible in climate policy...and to turn evidence into action.

WEJ Research Fund

Turn evidence into action