There is growing consensus that the world faces three major crises – climate change, global economic vulnerability and the widening gulf between rich and poor. This is a critical time for the women’s health sector to engage with the global politics that play a determining role in women’s health status.

Economic and climatic disasters are inextricably linked, and women are most affected. Improvement to women’s health will not be effected – or effective – without tackling ‘the structural mechanisms that produce and maintain the inequitable distribution of power, prestige and resources between men and women. A broad understanding of economic and political systems is a prerequisite for action on climate change and women’s inequality.

In the same way that education and awareness-raising was central to the achievements of feminism, it is equally integral to effective action on women’s rights in the context of climatic and economic disaster.