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“A Different Kind of Hot”: Centring the Everyday Extreme Heat Experiences of Young Women in Accra

Jamieson, Skye LU (2026) In IIIEE Master Thesis IMEM02 20261
The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics
Abstract
As climate change continues to intensify, young women are among those most affected, particularly in rapidly urbanising cities across the Global South. In Accra, one of West Africa's fastest-warming cities, young women navigate extreme heat daily, yet heat vulnerability research and policy rarely draw on their lived experiences. Accra's Climate Action Plan (CAP) is currently under revision with stated commitments to gender-sensitive adaptation, but without grounded evidence of how heat is actually lived by those most affected, those commitments cannot translate into meaningful action. This thesis examines how young women in student and early professional life in Accra experience and narrate extreme heat, how gender shapes that experience,... (More)
As climate change continues to intensify, young women are among those most affected, particularly in rapidly urbanising cities across the Global South. In Accra, one of West Africa's fastest-warming cities, young women navigate extreme heat daily, yet heat vulnerability research and policy rarely draw on their lived experiences. Accra's Climate Action Plan (CAP) is currently under revision with stated commitments to gender-sensitive adaptation, but without grounded evidence of how heat is actually lived by those most affected, those commitments cannot translate into meaningful action. This thesis examines how young women in student and early professional life in Accra experience and narrate extreme heat, how gender shapes that experience, and what their situated knowledge can contribute to gender-responsive adaptation planning. Drawing on Feminist Political Ecology and feminist urbanism, data were collected with eleven young women across the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) through semi-structured interviews, supported by a photo elicitation activity. The findings show that heat management is anticipatory, continuous, and gendered. Participants navigate the city through detailed mental maps of shade and safety and bear the costs of inadequate infrastructure in their bodies, routines, and professional lives. New contributions to the literature include the intersection of reproductive physiology and heat vulnerability, the implications of heat for safety in public space, and withdrawal from public life as a form of spatial exclusion. Participants demonstrate situated knowledge of what gender-responsive urban design would require, positioning them as agents of change rather than passive, vulnerable subjects of climate risk. The study concludes that the gap between Accra's climate policy commitments and lived reality is not one of knowledge but of political will and calls on the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the Ministry of Gender to centre the situated knowledge documented here in the revision of Accra's CAP for 2026–2036. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Jamieson, Skye LU
supervisor
organization
course
IMEM02 20261
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Urban Heat Vulnerability, Feminist Political Ecology, Feminist Urbanism, Situated Knowledge, Gender-Responsive Adaptation, Accra
publication/series
IIIEE Master Thesis
report number
2026:33
ISSN
1401-9191
language
English
id
9250462
date added to LUP
2026-09-08 13:01:10
date last changed
2026-09-08 13:01:10
@misc{9250462,
  abstract     = {{As climate change continues to intensify, young women are among those most affected, particularly in rapidly urbanising cities across the Global South. In Accra, one of West Africa's fastest-warming cities, young women navigate extreme heat daily, yet heat vulnerability research and policy rarely draw on their lived experiences. Accra's Climate Action Plan (CAP) is currently under revision with stated commitments to gender-sensitive adaptation, but without grounded evidence of how heat is actually lived by those most affected, those commitments cannot translate into meaningful action. This thesis examines how young women in student and early professional life in Accra experience and narrate extreme heat, how gender shapes that experience, and what their situated knowledge can contribute to gender-responsive adaptation planning. Drawing on Feminist Political Ecology and feminist urbanism, data were collected with eleven young women across the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) through semi-structured interviews, supported by a photo elicitation activity. The findings show that heat management is anticipatory, continuous, and gendered. Participants navigate the city through detailed mental maps of shade and safety and bear the costs of inadequate infrastructure in their bodies, routines, and professional lives. New contributions to the literature include the intersection of reproductive physiology and heat vulnerability, the implications of heat for safety in public space, and withdrawal from public life as a form of spatial exclusion. Participants demonstrate situated knowledge of what gender-responsive urban design would require, positioning them as agents of change rather than passive, vulnerable subjects of climate risk. The study concludes that the gap between Accra's climate policy commitments and lived reality is not one of knowledge but of political will and calls on the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the Ministry of Gender to centre the situated knowledge documented here in the revision of Accra's CAP for 2026–2036.}},
  author       = {{Jamieson, Skye}},
  issn         = {{1401-9191}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  series       = {{IIIEE Master Thesis}},
  title        = {{“A Different Kind of Hot”: Centring the Everyday Extreme Heat Experiences of Young Women in Accra}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}