Gendered Perspective to Disaster Management

Journal article - A Gendered Perspective: The voices of Women – Elaine Enarson and

Betty Hearn Morrow

• A critical part of Vulnerability – Social Structures

• Vulnerability of women stems from cultural, political and economic conditions

• Disaster stories often highlight women’s experiences as victims but hardly as responders

• Enarson and Morrow argue that women’s diverse experiences will promote effective disaster planning and response

Issues with Disaster Work:• Assumes a gender neutral social system - but

in reality the social environments and world views are different for men and women

• In many societies elaborate ‘gender domains’ are created – these cause different hazard and relief consequences for men and women

• Contemporary gender studies showcase the unique experiences of women and men

• Greater need to go beyond and explore the effects of gender with other variables such as race/ethnicity, caste, culture, class etc.

A Qualitative Study – Women’s experiences in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew

• To understand the implications of gender and the roles of women in household and community preparation, relief, and recovery efforts

• Interviews and focus groups Study population: i. Immigrant and migrant women from Haiti/ Cuba/

Mexicoii. African American single mothers and grandmothersiii. Women construction workersiv. Business owners, agricultural worker v. Teachers, social workersvi. Battered and homeless women

Irene Phillips: social worker (Caucasian in her 3o’s, with a husband and two children. ..Andrew survivor

• Luckier, ‘guilty survivor’, had a husband to help board up, prepare, evacuate, recover

• Single women with children, grandmothers, no kin – especially vulnerable

• More people living under one roof, push back retirement

• Children suffer nightmares, sleeplessness, headaches, long commutes to school

• Overworked, expanded case loads, fights overwhelming feelings of helplessness and depression

Pat Higgins: head of a multigenerational family - two adult children and three grandchildren living in Public Housing

• Women of Garden Grove mostly elderly and/or have small dependent children

• Plywood on site in a locked storage room so could not be used to board up

• No electricity, telephones or newspapers – word of mouth to locate relief

• Food vouchers for a store that was not open, clothes vouchers didn’t go far

• Victims spread out - long distances to travel, no information, confusion, frustration

On-site Observations• Relief workers primarily White and middle-

class from distant regions, little experience working with culturally diverse clients

• Lacked social services training (Internal Revenue agents as FEMA intake workers)

• An African American women said, “THEY HEAR YOU BUT THEY DON’T HEAR YOU!”

• Recent immigrants from countries with a legacy of political repression, such as Guatemala and El Salvador were reluctant to seek help

On-site Observations• Women applying for FEMA trailers were

sometimes needlessly asked if they were married to partners living with them – an insult not lost to many

• FEMA, SBA and Red Cross home inspectors were overworked – missed appointments, made cursory observations

• Case workers were frustrated with the process being inequitable and inconsistent screening criteria

Disaster Communities:• Mexican farm workers, Haitian Immigrants

and African American church women galvanized their neighborhoods into action –

“Unpaid community work, family labor and women’s

social action in the post-disaster period remains largely

Unexplored”

Disaster Communities:• Loss of a major invisible and undervalued

resource - Lose women volunteers to work at libraries, schools, scouting programs, community services

• Valuable skills and training as well as social and emotional resources of women - Central to short -term and long-term community recovery

• Unscrupulous contractors systematically targeting single women - language barriers, women vulnerable to coercive practices

Journal article: How is Household Vulnerability Gendered? – Louise Waite

• Looks at specific gendered forms of disadvantages faced by female headed households in Kurdistan

• Iraqi Kurdistan – social cultural expectation biased towards marriage expectations

• Female-headed households formed in an involuntary manner – widowhood due to regional conflicts

Literature review• ‘Women are the poorest of the poor’ • ‘Feminisation of poverty’ – poor are mostly

women• Need to address the gendered experience

of poverty – lived experiences of women's and men’s poverty

• Human poverty (referred to in UNDP’s Human Development Report, 1997) – too multi-dimensional to be reduced to a single factor ‘INCOME’

Women, Gender and Disaster – A Research Agenda

• How are women’s particular needs identified by disaster planning, and response agencies and emergent groups?

• What organizational conditions increase the visibility of gender issues?

• What training programs and other mechanisms best sensitize paid and volunteer disaster workers to gender bias?

Focus on Poverty with Vulnerability1. Don’t want to focus only on poverty –

‘victim’ perspective2. Poverty/ wellbeing - static concept;

Vulnerability - dynamic concept, accompanied by processes of change

Vulnerability and Material Assets• Material assets – critical in mitigation of

vulnerability• Ability to subsist and mobilize assets at

times of severe stress and need

Factors for consideration:1. Household possessions, 2. Land, 3. Livestock,4. Homeownership

1. Household ownership: Complete absence of goods - FHH (26%); MHH

(16%)II. Land: Owned land - FHH (22%); MHH (16%), legal

ownershipIII. Livestock: Livestock ownership – FHH (over double

than) :MHHIV. Home ownership:FHH (48% renting); MHH (36% ownership)

Factors for consideration:

Vulnerability and Human Capital Factors of consideration:1. Dependent Children2. Number working adults – Waged

Power3. Weekly income: household size4. Education level (attendance, gender

gap)5. Involved domestic labor (lack of time

to access opportunities – important in increasing vulnerabilities of poor)

Vulnerability and Social Capital How is social capital implicated in the copingresponses of borrowing?1. Mobilise kinship based entitlements or claims in

the form of money borrowing2. Social capital mobilised for social protection

No differences in the ability to borrow but MHH borrowedhigher than FHH – greater ability of MHH

FHH and MHH borrowed from relatives, friends etc. and hardly

from moneylenders – strong kinship based ties in Iraqi Kurdish

society

Conclusions• Findings are complex, leading to fluid and

fluctuating gendered experiences of vulnerabilities

• Refute the rhetoric fuelled stereotype that FHH are at a disadvantage in all dimensions of vulnerability comparison to MHH

Conclusions• FHH more vulnerable – household

possessions, house ownership assets, in the ratio of wage-earning adults to dependents, mobilising informal social capital

• MHH more vulnerable – Land and livestock assets, less weekly money per household member, being more indebted

Conclusions1. Domestic tasks virtually exclusively

undertaken by women and girls in collective households – TIME as an asset is lacking for them

2. Both household sets display significant levels of non school attendance for girls and recent withdrawal of boys

3. Concept of ‘Household Vulnerability’ – is obsolete

4. Reduction of household vulnerability does not necessarily translate into a reduction of each member’s vulnerability

Women, Gender and Disaster – A Research Agenda

DISASTER IMPACTi. What model’s can be identified in

disaster-struck communities for responding to women’s needs? (Economic safety, mental health services, personal safety)

ii. How are at-risk groups of women most effectively reached with preparation, evacuation and mitigation information?

iii. What patterns of bias can be identified in the practices of responding agencies in the private and public sector?

Women, Gender and Disaster – A Research Agenda

DISASTER VULNERABILITYi. How do physical, social and economic

conditions of life place women at special risk from disasters in differing life circumstances? (pregnancy, reproductive needs, HH status)

ii. What regional and local patterns increase women’s vulnerability?( Immigration trends, women’s formal and informal economic activities)

Women, Gender and Disaster – A Research Agenda

DISASTER RESPONSE CAPACITYi. How have women in various settings

organized to meet household, neighborhood, and community immediate needs immediately after a disaster?

ii. What cultural patterns make women effective disaster responders at the household and community levels?

Policy Implications• A gendered perspective in preparedness, relief,

recovery, and mitigation, taken up at the level of household dynamics (all four stages of disaster cycle)

• Also in the contexts of organizational practice and macro- economic social forces

• Effects of globalization, urbanization and environmental degradation, on a woman’s disaster vulnerabilities both in developed and poor countries (issues of social justice)

For researchers• Longitudinal panel investigations of whether and

how gender-specific disaster decisions affect gender equity

• Comparisons between best practices in the field – grassroots disaster planning, response and recovery

• Historical and comparative investigations of key factors facilitating and hindering mobilization around disaster issues

In class: Questions for the groups• What changes would you make to existing

policies to deal with vulnerabilities arising from gender differences?

• Would these be different in a developed country versus a developing one?

• Would these be different for varying disaster agents?

Policy Implications?• Access to education (free)• Rights within the household• Both names on the paperwork for ownership• Micro-credit financing (women)

Policy ImplicationsTaking gender into consideration in the planning process andwhen constructing mitigation projects.

1. Planning processe.g. facilitate cheaper public housing alternatives to increasenumber of home owners (amongst FHH) versus those who rentHomes

2. Mitigation projectse.g. educating FHH and MHH households which protectiveactions they can take to protect against earthquake, how toretrofit houses, helping with finances to build stronger etc.

Policy ImplicationsWomen:-Equal Right to Educations-Access to ‘Micro-credit Financing” for housing/SBL-50/50 split of Marital Assets-Joint Partnership of Financial Responsibility-Public Education on Equal RightsMen:-Domestic Education (household)-Access to ‘Micro-credit Financing’-remove debt-Create “men’s support group” – understanding different

social roles in times of disasters-Create male/female social support group to help work together (considering social-cultural norms)

Policy Implications?

• Role reversal !! • Labor laws• Education-Equality better public schools• Skill development• Affordable insurance• Local banking system-implementation of Micro-

credit financing• Transportation availability• Community development- schools, shelters,

programs towards the lower-income population