Gender and Disaster: Foundations and New Directions for Research and Practice
01 Jan 2018-pp 205-223
TL;DR: In this paper, a review focusing on English-language peer-reviewed materials relating to natural, technological, and intentional hazards and disasters is presented, focusing on the diverse theories and methods shaping contemporary research, and synthesize key international findings about mortality, health, and well-being; gender-based violence; family and work; and grassroots change.
Abstract: Past research clearly demonstrates that gender influences resources, capacities, decision-making processes, and outcomes throughout the disaster lifecycle, as well as the practical management of disaster risk, response, and recovery structures. Now well-established in disaster science, gender analysis has grown in scope and influence over the past decade. This chapter updates the authors’ earlier review, again focusing on English-language peer-reviewed materials relating to natural, technological, and intentional hazards and disasters. The authors reflect on the diverse theories and methods shaping contemporary research, and synthesize key international findings about mortality, health, and well-being; gender-based violence; family and work; and grassroots change. They further highlight three critical lines of inquiry now emerging regarding sexual minorities, masculinities, and climate change in gender and disaster research. The chapter concludes with research recommendations and with strategies for utilizing new knowledge about gendered vulnerability and resilience to reduce risk, minimize losses, and decrease suffering in disasters.
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TL;DR: Given the gender-skewed landscape of power and decision-making in global health, it is also critical to outline women’s leadership and role in such contexts, and to assess the intersectional and gendered vulnerabilities in health emergencies.
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Epidemics function as a gendered vulnerability, and yet gender remains an afterthought in health security and pandemic response, including to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).1 Emerging data indicate that COVID-19 mortality is greater among men, but past experiences suggest that the socioeconomic impact of epidemics tends to be far greater for women. As a result, it is essential to assess the intersectional and gendered vulnerabilities in health emergencies. In addition, given the gender-skewed landscape of power and decision-making in global health, it is also critical to outline women’s leadership and role in such contexts.
Women are users of health services, and they are agents of change in health, making critical contributions as parents, front-line responders, health promoters, influencers, researchers, scientists and decision-makers. In China’s COVID-19 response, female nurses and community health workers were the first line of defence against the outbreak.1 Despite their major role, an interplay of power and privilege often results in women—particularly women from minority ethnic groups—being under-represented in …
46 citations
26 Feb 2021
31 citations
Additional excerpts
...This review updates and adds to previous work on gender and natural disasters—notably foundational work by Enarson, Fothergill, and Peek (2007, 2018) and Enarson (2000)—and thematic literature reviews, including impacts on: gender-based violence (Phillips and Jenkins 2016); children and adolescent…...
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors identify and map the relationships between the factors that make Afghan rural women more vulnerable to natural hazard-induced disasters, including insufficient disaster education, inadequate protection measures, and powerful cultural issues, both pre- and post-disaster, increase women's vulnerability during and after disasters.
Abstract: Disaster management is a global challenge, but disasters do not affect men and women equally. In most of the world’s disasters, more females are impacted than males, and in Afghanistan the disparity between female and male victims is even greater. This study identifies and maps the relationships between the factors that make Afghan rural women more vulnerable to natural hazard-induced disasters. Data for this study were obtained through focus group discussions with rural women and men, as well as person-to-person interviews with employees of government and nongovernmental organizations at the national and local levels in Afghanistan. The study uses Grounded Theory and Interpretive Structural Modeling, not widely used before for this type of study, to analyze the data collected and to map the factors of vulnerability identified and their relationships. In agreement with previous studies, our findings show that insufficient disaster education, inadequate protection measures, and powerful cultural issues, both pre- and post-disaster, increase women’s vulnerability during and after disasters. In particular, cultural issues play a role after disasters by affecting women’s security, access to disaster aid, and health care. The study also found that perception regarding these cultural issues and how they affect women during disasters differs among men and women. Finally, by using Interpretive Structural Modeling, we show how the importance of the factors and their interrelationships change in pre-disaster and post-disaster situations. We conclude the article with some policy recommendations such as finding ways to allow women to participate in disaster planning activities and decision-making processes related to disaster risk reduction, as well as securing dedicated funds for the mainstreaming of gender in disaster risk reduction policies in Afghanistan.
29 citations
Cites background from "Gender and Disaster: Foundations an..."
...This differential vulnerability primarily arises from the disaster itself, and is documented worldwide, for example in the Bangladesh cyclone in 1991 (Ikeda 1995), Hurricane Katrina of 2005 (Enarson et al. 2007), and the...
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TL;DR: The results point to the continued, and similar, effect of gender stratification on women's experiences across different types of disasters in the U.S. and the continued importance of gender sensitive disaster policies and programs.
Abstract: Gender, although gaining attention, remains under-researched in disaster risk reduction protocols and response and recovery efforts. This study examines women's experiences of two disasters in small towns in the United States, utilising qualitative interviews with residents of Granbury and West, Texas, during the first year of disaster recovery. Granbury was struck by an EF-4 tornado on 15 May 2013, whereas an explosion occurred at a local fertiliser facility in West on 17 April 2013. The paper explores how women's experiences of inter-gender power dynamics in decision-making, the prioritisation of childcare, and women's participation in the community affect their post-disaster recovery. Previous research highlights different forms of human response and recovery vis-a-vis 'natural' and technological disasters, with less attention paid to gender differences. The results point to the persistent, and similar, effect of gender stratification on women's experiences across different types of disasters in the US and the continued importance of gender-sensitive disaster policies and programmes.
21 citations
TL;DR: Zhang et al. as mentioned in this paper employed qualitative research methodology that scrutinizes women's leadership at different stages of their lifespans during all the post-disaster stages (emergency rescue, short-term reconstruction, and long-term recovery and mitigation) that took place after the Wenchuan earthquake, in the rural areas of Sichuan Province, China.
20 citations
References
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TL;DR: The authors found that women express slightly greater concern about climate change than do men, and this gender divide is not accounted for by differences in key values and beliefs or in the social roles that men and women differentially perform in society.
Abstract: This study tests theoretical arguments about gender differences in scientific knowledge and environmental concern using 8 years of Gallup data on climate change knowledge and concern in the US general public. Contrary to expectations from scientific literacy research, women convey greater assessed scientific knowledge of climate change than do men. Consistent with much existing sociology of science research, women underestimate their climate change knowledge more than do men. Also, women express slightly greater concern about climate change than do men, and this gender divide is not accounted for by differences in key values and beliefs or in the social roles that men and women differentially perform in society. Modest yet enduring gender differences on climate change knowledge and concern within the US general public suggest several avenues for future research, which are explored in the conclusion.
639 citations
TL;DR: In the literature on gender and climate change, two themes predominate: women as vulnerable or virtuous in relation to the environment as mentioned in this paper and men as pollute more than women.
Abstract: In the limited literature on gender and climate change, two themes predominate – women as vulnerable or virtuous in relation to the environment. Two viewpoints become obvious: women in the South will be affected more by climate change than men in those countries and that men in the North pollute more than women. The debates are structured in specific ways in the North and the South and the discussion in the article focuses largely on examples from Sweden and India. The article traces the lineage of the arguments to the women, environment and development discussions, examining how they recur in new forms in climate debates. Questioning assumptions about women's vulnerability and virtuousness, it highlights how a focus on women's vulnerability or virtuousness can deflect attention from inequalities in decision-making. By reiterating statements about poor women in the South and the pro-environmental women of the North, these assumptions reinforce North–South biases. Generalizations about women's vulnerability and virtuousness can lead to an increase in women's responsibility without corresponding rewards. There is need to contextualise debates on climate change to enable action and to respond effectively to its adverse effects in particular places.
605 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1997
TL;DR: In this paper, social, economic and political factors set the stage for Hurricane Andrew by influencing who was prepared, who was hit the hardest, and who was most likely to recover.
Abstract: This book explores how social, economic and political factors set the stage for Hurricane Andrew by influencing who was prepared, who was hit the hardest, and who was most likely to recover. Employing unique research data the authors analyze the consequences of conflict and competition on disaster preparation, response and recovery, especially where associated with race, ethnicity and gender.
494 citations
TL;DR: Gender issues have hardly figured in the international policy discourse, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, but this may be changing thanks to feminist lobbying and the increasing involvement of gender specialists in this field.
Abstract: Both climate change itself and related policies are likely to have wide-ranging effects on gender relations, especially in developing countries. Poor women face many gender-specific barriers that limit their ability to cope with and adapt to a changing climate; these must be removed in the interests of both gender equity and adaptation efficiency. At the same time, gender analysis should be integral to the appraisal of public policies designed to reduce carbon emissions. To date, gender issues have hardly figured in the international policy discourse, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol. However, this may be changing thanks to feminist lobbying and the increasing involvement of gender specialists in this field. There is a lot at stake; the international post-2012 Kyoto Protocol agreement will have enormous implications for gender equality.
368 citations
01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: Gendered disaster social science rests on the social fact of gender as a primary organizing principle of societies and the conviction that gender must be addressed if we are to claim knowledge about all people living in risky environments as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Gendered disaster social science rests on the social fact of gender as a primary organizing principle of societies and the conviction that gender must be addressed if we are to claim knowledge about all people living in risky environments. Theoretically, researchers in the area are moving toward a more nuanced, international, and comparative approach that examines gender relations in the context of other categories of social difference and power such as race, ethnicity, nationality, and social class. At a practical level, researchers seek to bring to the art and science of disaster risk reduction a richer appreciation of inequalities and differences based on sex and gender. As the world learns from each fresh tragedy, gender relations are part of the human experience of disasters and may under some conditions lead to the denial of the fundamental human rights of women and girls in crisis.
225 citations