Women talking: Bringing the environment into UK parliamentary speeches

Abstract Research shows that increased participation of women in parliaments benefits climate change outcomes. Yet, the actions taken by women parliamentarians to shape these outcomes have not been identified in the literature. I assert that a primary step by which women may generate impact is by championing environmentalism in their speeches before parliament. To test this, I analyse speeches from the UK House of Commons from 2010 to 2021, and find that women MPs both speak proportionately more about the environment than their male counterparts, and bring environmentalism into debates that are not explicitly coded as environmental. Finally, while Conservative women are outnumbered by men, they contribute significantly more to environmental speeches than their male counterparts. These results suggest that women are disproportionately responsible for embedding environmentalism into political discussions across Parliament and the Conservative Party, and prompt questions around the true cost of unequal representation for our climate.