From anxiety to action: women's lived experiences of eco-anxiety in the context of climate change

Climate change is increasingly recognized not only as an environmental crisis but also as a source of psychological distress. Eco-anxiety has emerged as an important concept for understanding climate-related worry, anticipatory fear, and emotional burden. However, women’s lived experiences of eco-anxiety, particularly in climate-sensitive contexts where environmental change intersects with material survival and gendered responsibilities, remain underexplored. This study explored how women experienced and interpreted eco-anxiety in relation to climate change, how these experiences were shaped by gendered responsibilities and material conditions, and how women responded to climate-related distress. A phenomenology-informed qualitative design was employed. Twenty women from rural and urban settings were recruited through criterion-based purposive and snowball sampling. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis supported by MAXQDA 2025. Three interrelated themes were developed within the broader domain of women’s lived experiences of eco-anxiety in the context of climate change: (1) Psychological Effects of Climate Change, comprising five constituent codes related to worry, uncertainty, emotional exhaustion, somatic burden, and reduced hope; (2) Gendered Dimensions of Eco-Anxiety, comprising three constituent codes showing how climate-related distress was linked to caregiving roles and everyday resource management; and (3) Coping Strategies: Everyday Action and Perceived Limits, comprising three constituent codes reflecting participants’ practical responses alongside recognition of the limits of individual action. Women’s eco-anxiety was shaped not only by emotional responses to environmental change but also by everyday responsibilities, material conditions, and perceived constraints. Findings suggest that eco-anxiety should be understood as a socially situated and gendered experience requiring community, institutional, and policy-level responses.