The Gendered Terrain of Disaster: Through Women's Eyes

(Hardback)

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Description

Gender is revealed as a central organizing principle in social life when the unexpected transforms daily routines, environments, and social institutions. Using specific disaster experiences from around the world, this book argues for a gendered perspective in policy, practice and research. Contributing authors challenge the image of women as hapless victim in their accounts of women who rebuilt flooded homes in Bangladesh, evacuated families from Australian bushfires, reconstructed communities after a Mexican earthquake, and mobilized women in Miami in the wake of Hurricane Andrew. From Bangladesh to Scotland, the case studies document the root causes of women's vulnerability to disaster and the central roles they play before, during and after disaster. The authors recommend strategies for policy makers and emergency practitioners to more fully engage women in diaster planning and response.

Reviews

"As a researcher in the world outside of academia, the criteria I use to determine whether information is useful to others are pragmatically biased. Specifically, I look for information that can directly help planners and others in the fields of emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. The Gendered Terrain of Disaster: Through Women's Eyes does all of this and more....[U]seful to feminist sociological theorists and to planners and policymakers engaged in assessing and mitigating the vulnerability of communities, in both high density urban areas and in traditional rural economics....This book provides a trail blazing collection of evidence that gender issues can no longer be ignored or dismissed if we are truly interested in reducing vulnerability and increasing sustainability of communities."-International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters
As a researcher in the world outside of academia, the criteria I use to determine whether information is useful to others are pragmatically biased. Specifically, I look for information that can directly help planners and others in the fields of emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. The Gendered Terrain of Disaster: Through Women's Eyes does all of this and more....[U]seful to feminist sociological theorists and to planners and policymakers engaged in assessing and mitigating the vulnerability of communities, in both high density urban areas and in traditional rural economics....This book provides a trail blazing collection of evidence that gender issues can no longer be ignored or dismissed if we are truly interested in reducing vulnerability and increasing sustainability of communities.-International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters
The book is an important contribution to the disaster literature...it informs practitioners and planners, disaster and social science researchers, and the general reader. The editors provide excellent introductions to each part of the book that will help readers select chapters that are most pertinent to their interests. In the end, the editors succeed in leading us through the "gendered terrain of disaster."-American Journal of Sociology
"The book is an important contribution to the disaster literature...it informs practitioners and planners, disaster and social science researchers, and the general reader. The editors provide excellent introductions to each part of the book that will help readers select chapters that are most pertinent to their interests. In the end, the editors succeed in leading us through the "gendered terrain of disaster.""-American Journal of Sociology

Author Bio

ELAINE ENARSON is Visiting Scholar at the University of British Columbia's Disaster Preparedness Resources Centre and Community Research Scholar with the UBC Centre for Research in Women's Studies and Gender Relations - BETTY HEARN MORROW is Associate Professor of Sociology and a research associate of the International Hurricane Center at Florida International University.