Effects of climatic changes on the socio-economic role of women in Egyptian villages

Abstract Changes in weather and climate factors can cause negative impacts on women’s economic activities in agricultural communities, which have drawn increasing research attention. The objective of the current study is to determine the most important changes in weather and climate factors and their impacts on women’s socio-economic activities and to recommend appropriate actions to address these changes. The study designed a field questionnaire to collect 150 simple random samples. Forms were collected through personal interviews with women working in agricultural fields, dairy production, livestock, and marketing within the study sample in Giza Governorate, Egypt, during the winter of 2023. The study used analysis of variance (ANOVA) and least significant difference (LSD) tests to examine the statistical significance of the differences. The study results showed that the most influential factors were: rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and then rise in the shallow groundwater table. Their effects were statistically significant at the 0.01 and 0.05 probability levels. The study also indicated that changes in these factors had significant impacts on: women’s participation in fieldwork, raising and selling livestock, and processing and sale of dairy products, with average impact rates of approximately 36%, 31%, and 28%, respectively, among the studied cases. On the other hand, the effects on self-employment activities (collecting and marketing products) and balancing the household budget were not statistically significant. The current study recommends: (1) adopting partially shaded agriculture under palm trees, (2) Improving irrigation and drainage management, (3) enhancing women’s ability to monitor weather forecasts and adapt to changing events, (4) improving women’s access to financial services.