• Eco gender gap is a term used to indicate a greater attention to environmental issues among women.
• In green marketing, a greater tendency among women to purchase sustainable products has been recorded.
• Are women more involved in environmental activism? There are many studies, but the evidence is not so clear-cut.

Is it true that sustainability is a matter of gender? If so, why? These are interesting and legitimate questions, and they are not easy to answer. For this reason, they deserve to be explored from two different yet interconnected perspectives: marketing and climate psychology. Two fields that have attempted to translate the phenomenon into comprehensible and, as far as possible, contextualised data: given the many variables to consider, this is a complex topic that often eludes easy labelling.

Green marketing: who is more conscientious when shopping?

Eco gender gap is a term that has only recently appeared in the mass media landscape. In 2018, market research company Mintel published a study showing that British men were less conscientious than women when it came to sustainable habits, such as saving energy and water, recycling waste and making mindful purchases.

"In surveys from the 1980s and 1990s, the green consumer was always profiled according to socio-demographic variables drawn from traditional marketing," explains Fabio Iraldo, professor of management at the Scuola superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa. "The question was: who prioritises sustainable purchasing? Generally, it was women, wealthy people and educated people." This is how an identikit of the conscious consumer was constructed. Towards the end of the 1990s, however, this approach came under serious challenge. "It became clear that demographic variables do not reveal how green a consumer is," Iraldo adds. "That was when the idea began to spread that it was the environmental impact of the product and the sensitivity of the buyer that mattered most."

In the study Why eco-labels can be effective marketing tools by the Institute of Management at Sant'Anna in Pisa, researchers identified three variables that, statistically, have the greatest influence on sustainable choices. "The first, and perhaps the most significant, is the idea that a given product can deliver a demonstrable environmental benefit (preferably certified). The second is gender, meaning the influence of being female, which can positively affect the purchasing decision. The third variable is cost: as the price increases, willingness to buy the product decreases," Iraldo concludes.

Digitalisation will narrow the gap

At a statistical level, then, a gender gap does exist. We asked Professor Iraldo whether, within marketing and communications, there was therefore a deliberate targeting of green products at women only, leaving men with few options. "I wouldn't say so," the professor replies. "Marketing campaigns are already fairly oriented towards raising awareness among male audiences. In the automotive sector, lower environmental impact is increasingly highlighted as a selling point. For this reason, I think that in the near future we will see signs of an awakening among male consumers, who will be more sensitised by these campaigns." The fashion sector, along with cosmetics, has made significant investments over the past five years in advertising campaigns for lower-impact products. "There is no gender prevalence, though. Patagonia, for example, has a predominantly male customer base."

The Sustainable products initiative, one of the objectives of the European Green Deal, included in the new Circular Economy Action Plan, envisages establishing a digital product passport (dpp) that gathers data on products' value chains. With this passport, consumers will be able to view a product's characteristics far more easily. "Younger generations will have easier access to information on environmental sustainability, and since the use of these devices cuts across demographics, I think the eco gender gap will naturally narrow," Iraldo observes.

Women's involvement in environmental activism

All people, activists and non-activists alike, perceive the climate crisis differently. To assess the degree of involvement of one gender compared to the other, numerous factors and variables must be taken into account and contextualised. "The literature on the gender gap is vast and is among the most complicated to evaluate," says Anna Castiglione, experimental psychologist and co-director of the Climate psychology and action lab. "There are various studies showing that women's involvement in environmental activism appears to be greater thanks to 'mediating' factors. The main ones are egalitarianism and caring — that is, concern for future generations and for the environment. There are studies showing that a greater perception of risk is another factor that triggers greater activism in women, at least in terms of intentions."

Castiglione nevertheless urges caution in drawing rigid, schematic conclusions, because few of these studies are based on objective observation of behaviour, while the majority rely on intentions (self-report) recorded in questionnaires. "This is problematic because everyone tends to want to appear more active than they are," the psychologist adds. "In gender studies from the early 2000s to the present day, the results are highly contradictory. This does not mean, however, that the eco gender gap does not exist." Another of the factors thought to influence this disparity is the lens through which the climate crisis is viewed — whether economic, scientific or social: the issue of rights is one that women hold more dear.

The fluidity of younger generations

An article published in 2016 in the Journal of consumer research found that "men can be motivated to avoid or even oppose sustainable behaviours in order to safeguard their gender identity". A study from Penn State University, published in the journal Sex roles, found that men might be unwilling to carry a reusable shopping bag, or to recycle, for fear of being perceived as gay or effeminate.

"I think it's a matter of where people come from and their age – comments Anna Castiglione –. There are certainly places that persist within a conservative bubble, where the type of day-to-day actions is still used to define an individual's sexuality and virility. In less urbanised contexts, these situations may still exist. But the new generations have acquired a fluidity in conceiving the female and male role; in holding certain values that are far more flexible than those of our parents' generation, in which virility and machismo were certainly more important."

As well as being a psychologist, Anna Castiglione has for years been a committed street activist. She has been part of groups such as Extinction Rebellion and the Sunrise Movement, and in her experience she has always found a perfect gender balance. "Climate environmentalism has rightly merged with other fundamental sociological issues, such as gender and ethnic equality. I think, for example, of the lack of people of colour in the movements — a very important demand, because it is a fact. I think it is right to celebrate climate stars such as Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in order to unite social struggles too, but we must not go so far as to exaggerate the idea that only women are on the front line in the fight against the climate crisis, when the evidence is not so clear-cut. There are many figures in climate activism, such as Bill McKibben, Avram Noam Chomsky, Bernie Sanders, or indigenous activist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, who have been fighting courageously for years."

The eco gender gap is a many-faceted phenomenon that requires careful contextualisation of the data, above all from a sociological standpoint. What is certain is that society is evolving, and more and more people — young and old, women and men, activists and non-activists — will tend to be more conscientious both as consumers and as active participants in the fight against the climate crisis.