Women, Gender and Disaster
Global Issues and Initiatives
- Elaine Enarson - Independent Scholar
- P G Dhar Chakrabarti - Formerly at National Institute of Disaster Management and SAARC Disaster Management Centre, India
Environmental Sociology
Women, Gender and Disaster: Global Issues and Initiatives examines gender within the context of disaster risk management. It argues for gender mainstreaming as an effective strategy towards achieving disaster risk reduction and mitigating post-disaster gender disparity. Highlighting that gender inequalities pervade all aspects of life, it analyses the failure to implement inclusive and gender-sensitive approaches to relief and rehabilitation work. While examining positive strategies for change, the collection focuses on women's knowledge, capabilities, leadership and experience in community resource management. The authors emphasize that these strengths in women, which are required for building resilience to hazards and disasters, are frequently overlooked.
This timely book will be extremely useful to policy makers and professionals active in the field of disaster management and to academics and students in gender studies, social work, environmental studies and development studies.
This is a good book for students trying to understand this developing field. Policy makers and researchers will be able to implement the frameworks and tools highlighted in this book. It is meant to be used as a resource for future implementation of gender-sensitive disaster risk management. The tools and framework will provide a good starting point for any policy maker. Every part of this book could have been a separate book, but the editor does a good job of weaving the extensive literature into a systematic and good read.
The book not only highlights challenges that must be overcome but also provides recommendations for achieving equal participation of women in decision-making and approaches for integrating a gender perspective into disaster risk reduction strategies. It brings to light the fact that unless relief workers and officials acknowledge their vulnerable status and plan relief efforts accordingly, women will continue to be disproportionately affected by natural disasters.
This book would be good for students of psychology and organizations working with women at grassroots level to take up lessons for future course of directions.
Women, Gender and Disaster provides a comprehensive overview of the role gender plays in various disaster situations…[The book] brings together cross-cultural and grassroots perspectives on both response and reduction, examining what is being done now and what could be done in the future…The book gives important case studies and examples for those working in the disaster management field, policy makers, academics and students alike.
