The “Scissors Curve” Between Gender and Income: How Economic Inequality can Shape Carbon Footprints in Europe

Households with a female primary breadwinner represent a growing proportion of households in Europe. Consistent with research on gendered economic inequalities, female-headed households are highly overrepresented in low-income groups, a pattern that constrains their consumption possibilities. Within this context of intersecting income and gender inequalities, this study develops a multiregional input-output (MRIO) model for Europe to estimate carbon emissions embodied in household consumption by the gender of the main earner, as well as other characteristics such as income, household composition, age, and education. To address previous findings linking female breadwinners to more sustainable consumption patterns, the effect of gender is isolated from income-related and sociodemographic factors using propensity score matching (PSM). The findings indicate that the lower carbon footprints observed in female-headed households reflect not gender alone, but also the socioeconomic characteristics in which these households are embedded.HIGHLIGHTSFemale-headed households are concentrated in lower income quintiles across Europe.Income largely explains gender differences in household carbon footprints.Gender differences persist in transport and care-related consumption categories.Household-level analysis disentangles gender from socioeconomic factors.Climate policy should jointly address gender inequality and household decarbonization.