In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Gendering Disasters

  • Introduction
  • Core Readings
  • Gendering Risk and Resilience
  • Gender, Disasters, and Access to Resources
  • Gender, Humanitarianism, and Displacement
  • Sexual and Reproductive Health in Disaster Contexts
  • Disasters, Discrimination, and Rights
  • Gender and Violence
  • Care and Livelihoods in Times of Crisis
  • Gendering Methodologies in Disaster Risk Reduction
  • Decolonizing Gender and Disaster
  • Agency, Voice, and Power

International Relations Gendering Disasters
by
Olivia Walmsley, Jessica Roberts, Virginie Le Masson, Louisa Acciari, Punam Yadav, Maureen Fordham
  • LAST MODIFIED: 07 January 2025
  • DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199743292-0324

Introduction

Gender norms and stereotypes, socially and culturally structured gender roles, and power relations affect our understanding of a disaster scenario. In examining disasters and conflict through a gender and feminist lens, questions such as “Who is at risk?” and “Who is affected by a catastrophe and why?” can be answered. For more than four decades, gender and disaster scholars have documented how individuals’ social identities shape their experiences of disasters, their vulnerabilities, and their capacities to respond and recover. “Intersectionality” and its tenets argue that people’s identities are not limited to the sum of their different identity categories (their gender(s), age, ethnicity, religion, class and/or caste background, sexual orientation and many other characteristics). It is therefore essential when examining the multifaceted experience of disasters to question the very notion of disaster, and its relation to broader, structural inequalities. Resources outlined in this bibliography address a range of social identities and expand the traditional binary approach to examining “gender” in disaster scenarios. This bibliography also aims to promote references that may be less often cited or less visible, especially those coming from the Global South. Such plurality of voices and perspectives is important to address existing gaps in knowledge, policy, and practice. Indeed, without a more systematic gender and intersectional lens, populations and territories that are considered to be more “vulnerable” will continue to disproportionately suffer from the effects of disasters, while being given little space to share their own knowledge and solutions. Resources in this bibliography provide evidence, information, and recommendations to a wide audience including students, scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. Gendering Risk and Resilience offers insight into how intersectional aspects of identity impact capacities and vulnerability. Gender, Disasters, and Access to Resources shows how access to resources is determined by a range of geographic and social factors. Gender, Humanitarianism, and Displacement examines power relations in contexts of humanitarian intervention and forced migration. Disasters, Discrimination, and Rights spotlights discrimination impeding access to rights and how to combat it. The bibliography also addresses Sexual and Reproductive Health in Disaster Contexts, and how livelihoods and reproductive work are impacted by disasters in Care and Livelihoods in Times of Crisis. Gender and Violence is addressed, as well as Agency, Voice, and Power. Decolonizing Gender and Disaster focuses on the racial-political implications of disaster work. Gendering Methodologies in Disaster Risk Reduction looks at data collection, management, and storage through a feminist lens.

Core Readings

This section introduces the reader to the existing literature on gender and disasters, highlighting fundamental concepts, core arguments, and conversations. Bradshaw and Fordham 2013 introduces discussions surrounding the impact that disasters have on women and girls due to social, cultural, and gender norms. Bradshaw 2013 critically examines “gender” in the wider context of development, through analyzing disaster discourse, risk, and humanitarianism, as well as identifying inclusion (or lack thereof) of women in disaster responses. Enarson, et al. 2018 also draws on the core concepts of development, risk and humanitarianism, making a call to shift the focus from gender to power and gender relations, particularly in disaster and climate change scholarship. All three articles conclude with recommendations, lessons learned, and strategies for utilizing core concepts such as “gender,” “risk,” and “vulnerability” in both disaster risk and humanitarian policy and practice. On the other hand, critical approaches to gender have also been growing. Yadav, et al. 2021 highlights that gender mainstreaming in disaster risk reduction (DRR) has not made any material transformative changes, despite progress in scholarship. Moreover, the concept of “gender” has been expanded to recognize gender and sexual minorities outside of Western binaries, considering how these communities may be impacted differently in times of crisis. Gaillard 2022 examines the colonialization and Westernization of key concepts in disaster academia, exploring how the monopolization of Western knowledge has shaped our understanding of “gender.” Baumann, et al. 2022 critiques scholars employing a flattened concept of “gender,” using the term to mean cisgender women. They argue that using non-inclusive language in academia, policy, and practice reinforces the oppressive power structures trying to be dismantled. Echoing this, Fordham 2012 argues we must not ignore the heterogeneity within categories such as cisgender women, cisgender men, and of gender and sexual minorities. Instead, “gender” must be used in its widest meaning to ensure inclusive DRR practices. Enarson and Pease 2016 introduces another way of interpreting and understanding gender and disasters beyond the binary, through examining masculinities and the power structures that underpin “masculinity.” Finally, intersectionality is another core concept in the gender and disaster field. Using the example of Typhoon Yolanda, Bonifacio 2019 reinforces the need for intersectional and inclusive praxis at all levels—from the personal to the national. Using post-tsunami Sri Lanka as an example, Perera-Mubarak 2013 highlights the importance of using an intersectional and feminist lens to understand lived experiences of disaster survivors.

  • Baumann, L., A. Sharan, and J. C. Gaillard. “Queering ‘Gender and Disaster’ for Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.

    This paper critiques the binary usage of “gender” in disaster academia, which is often used when referring to cisgender women. The authors argue that many disaster scholars still struggle to engage with the concept. Failing to expand “gender” outside of the male/female binary leads to inadequate and superficial recommendations which are coined as being “gender-sensitive.” Policy and practice methods which fail to adopt true inclusivity ultimately reinforce historical oppressive forces. Available online by subscription.

  • Bonifacio, G. T. “Locating Intersectionality in Transnational Aid Activism: An Autoethnography of a Disaster Response.” Canadian Ethnic Studies 51.3 (2019): 57–72.

    DOI: 10.1353/ces.2019.0020

    Using the case study of Typhoon Yolanda, this paper argues that transnational aid activism is an inherent intersectional praxis which cuts across personal, community, and the national. The author applies an autoethnographic and reflective interpolation of intersectionality in transnational aid from their volunteer experience with RealWorld Foundation. Concluding that the “personal is global,” the paper draws attention to the importance of intersectionality as praxis in examining transnational aid activism. Available online by subscription.

  • Bradshaw, S. Gender, Development and Disasters. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2013.

    DOI: 10.4337/9781782548232

    This book critically examines core concepts such as gender, vulnerability, risk, humanitarianism, development, and disaster discourse. Using case studies to demonstrate how disasters are experienced as individual and collective gendered events, the book questions women’s inclusion in disaster response and reconstruction. By critically reflecting on the inclusion of gender in processes of development, the book outlines important lessons for future development and disaster policy. Available online to purchase.

  • Bradshaw, S., and M. Fordham. “Women, Girls and Disasters - A Review for DFID. GSDRC Applied Knowledge Services, 2013.

    This review examines the evidence of impact that disasters have on women and girls. Data suggests that social, cultural, as well as gender norms lead to women being more vulnerable in a large-scale disaster. Through the identification of initiatives and investments which aim to address or mitigate the gendered impacts of disasters, the evidence suggests that there is a need to ingrain a gendered humanitarian response within development initiatives.

  • Enarson, E., A. Fothergill, and L. Peek. “Gender and Disaster: Foundations and New Directions for Research and Practice.” In Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Edited by H. Rodríguez, W. Donner, J. Trainor, 205–223. Springer: Cham, 2018.

    This article emphasizes the shift from analyzing “gender” to analyzing social difference and power through gender relations. Using a theoretical framework, the article highlights three critical lines of inquiry for prospective researchers in gender and disaster: sexual minorities, masculinities, and climate change. The article concludes with research recommendations and strategies for utilizing knowledge around gendered vulnerability to reduce risk, losses, and suffering in time of crisis. Available online by subscription.

  • Enarson, E., and B. Pease. “The Gendered Terrain of Disaster: Thinking about Men and Masculinities.” In Men, Masculinities and Disaster. Edited by E. Enarson and B. Pease, 2–20. London: Routledge, 2016.

    A key reading, this volume offers both new ways of thinking and new partners for action on the widening inequality and injustices that occur during urgent climate and disaster challenges. At the core of the volume is the understanding that disasters are anything but “natural.” Instead, disasters are social events that reveal power structures at all levels. Men and masculinities are critically analyzed to promote radical change in disaster studies.

  • Fordham, M. “Gender, Sexuality and Disaster.” In The Routledge Handbook of Hazards and Disaster Risk Reduction. Edited by Ben Wisner, J. C. Gaillard, and Ilan Kelman, 424–435. London: Routledge, 2012.

    Relevant to multiple stakeholders, this chapter contributes to discussions surrounding differing impacts disasters have according to one’s gender. While discussions on women and disasters—with particular focus on male/female dichotomies—have previously dominated disaster scholarship, the author argues that distinguishing between “women” and “gender” is essential. To avoid the homogenization of women as a binary category, gender must be an inclusive term. Available online by subscription.

  • Gaillard, J. C. “Gender in Disaster beyond Men and Women.” In The Invention of Disaster: Power and Knowledge in Discources on Hazard and Vulnerability. By J. C. Gaillard, 149–170. London: Routledge, 2022

    An essential read for a wide audience of scholars, postgraduate students, practitioners, and policymakers, this book is a theoretical contribution which takes a postcolonial approach to unpacking disaster academia. The book argues that the monopolization of Western knowledge in disaster academia has led to the increase in homogenous policies and practice in disaster risk reduction. The emergence of a more diverse set of worldviews and understanding is encouraged. Available for purchase.

  • Perera-Mubarak, K. N. “Positive Responses, Uneven Experiences: Intersections of Gender, Ethnicity, and Location in Post-tsunami Sri Lanka.” Gender, Place & Culture 20.5 (2013): 664–685.

    DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2012.709828

    Looking beyond “women as victims,” this article considers four key recovery strategies for livelihoods that highlight women’s capacities in overcoming the impacts of disaster, through mobilizing kin networks, care work, economic activity, and participating in community-based organizations. Using post-tsunami Sri Lanka as a case study, the article encourages discussions surrounding the lived experiences of intersectionality in feminist geographies and emphasizes its importance in understanding positionalities of the post-disaster lives of women. Available online by subscription.

  • Yadav, P., N. Saville, A. Arjyal, S. Baral, P. Kostkova, and M. Fordham. “A Feminist Vision for Transformative Change to Disaster Risk Reduction Policies and Practices.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 54 (2021): 02026.

    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.102026

    This paper argues that despite increasing global attention to gender equality, current disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies and practices have not made a difference to the lives of individuals, because they do not challenge existing unequal gendered power structures. Gender still operates largely as an add-on, appearing superficially at the very end of the thinking process. The authors propose that we need a transformative, feminist vision to ensure possibility for transformative social change. Available online by subscription.

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