Exploring Gender Differences in the American Diet

The document examines the relationship between gender and climate-related food choices in the US, finding that women generally have higher risk perceptions and a greater willingness to adopt plant-based diets and reduce food waste than men, though they also report more uncertainty regarding specific dietary impacts on global warming.

• Women in the United States generally exhibit higher levels of worry and stronger pro-climate beliefs than men, which may motivate them to make more climate-conscious consumer choices.
• Women are more likely than men to believe that reducing food waste and composting can mitigate global warming, with 48% of women believing reducing waste helps and 52% believing composting helps, compared to 41% and 37% of men respectively.
• Despite higher general concern, women report more uncertainty than men regarding the specific impact of certain dietary choices on global warming, such as the effect of plant-based diets and the use of clean cookstoves.
• Women show a greater willingness to adopt plant-based meat alternatives (58% vs 52%), reduce red meat consumption (28% vs 20%), and use dairy alternatives (24% vs 17%) than men, driven largely by environmental and animal protection motivations.
• Men are more likely than women to be open to eating cell-culture grown meat, with 29% of men expressing willingness compared to 22% of women.

APA

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (2020). Exploring Gender Differences in the American Diet. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/exploring-gender-differences-in-the-american-diet/

Chicago

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Exploring Gender Differences in the American Diet. 2020. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/exploring-gender-differences-in-the-american-diet/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Yale Program on Climate Change Communication |title=Exploring Gender Differences in the American Diet |date=3 August 2020 |url=https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/exploring-gender-differences-in-the-american-diet/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{yaleprogramonclimatechangecommunication2020exploring, author = {{Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}}, title = {{Exploring Gender Differences in the American Diet}}, institution = {Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}, year = {2020}, month = aug, url = {https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/exploring-gender-differences-in-the-american-diet/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }