Women, Gender and Disaster

Elaine Enarson is an American disaster sociologist currently working independently in Lyons, Colorado. Her personal experience in Hurricane Andrew sparked extensive work on gender-based vulnerability and capacity, writing from applied and theoretical perspectives on women’s human rights, livelihoods, safety, housing, community roles, political mobilisation, family lives, and disaster quilting as well as gender and extreme heat, evacuation and disaster recovery. She has developed a number of gender and disaster training packages for practitioners and a manual for Canadian grass-roots women’s groups on emergency preparedness. A founding member of the Gender and Disaster Network (GDN), Elaine was also the lead course developer of a FEMA course on social vulnerability and initiated a grass-roots risk assessment project with women in the Caribbean as well as the online Gender and Disaster Sourcebook. Currently she consults with UN agencies and teaches part time in her areas of interest. Elaine co-edited The Gendered Terrain of Disaster: Through Women’s Eyes (1998) and Women and Katrina: The Gender Dimensions of Disaster Recovery (forthcoming) and is developing a monograph on these topics in US contexts.P G Dhar Chakrabarti has been both a researcher and a practitioner of development policies and programmes on a wide range of issues. Starting his career as a Lecturer in Calcutta University, he joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1980 and worked on various assignments at local, provincial, national and international levels. During his tenure as Head of Women’s Development Wing in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, he was involved with many new initiatives like the Gender Budget, Women’s Component Plan and the National Policy on Women’s Empowerment. Presently, he is heading both the National Institute of Disaster Management which is the nodal institute of Government of India for research, documentation, training and capacity building on disaster management; and the SAARC Disaster Management Centre which is a regional organisation of the eight South Asian countries. He was nominated by the Secretary General of the United Nations to serve as a Member of the Advisory Group of Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) of the United Nations. He further worked as a Member of the Expert Group of the UNISDR on Gender and Disaster. He is the editor of two journals he founded—Disaster and Development and Journal of South Asian Disaster Studies. Widely travelled, he has authored a number of books and contributed papers in journals published from different countries.

• ForewordPART ONE: UNDERSTANDING GENDER RELATIONS IN DISASTEROverview - P G Dhar ChakrabartiSex, Gender and Gender Relations in Disasters - Madhavi Malalgoda AriyabanduA Gender Perspective on Disaster Risk Reduction - Helena Molin ValdésLet′s Share the Stage: ′Involving Men in Gender Equality and Disaster Risk Reduction′ - Prafulla Mishra Organizing for Risk Reduction: The Honolulu Call to Action - Cheryl L Anderson PART TWO: GENDERED CHALLENGES AND RESPONSES IN DISASTERSOverview - P G Dhar ChakrabartiReducing Disaster Risk through Community Resilience in the Himalayas - Manjari MehtaGender Perspectives on Disaster Reconstruction in Nicaragua: Reconstructing Roles and Relations? - Sarah Bradshaw and Brian LinnekerEnvironmental Management and Disaster Mitigation: Middle Eastern Gender Perspective - Samia Galal Saad"Everything Became a Struggle, Absolute Struggle": Post-flood Increases in Domestic Violence in New Zealand - Rosalind HoughtonParenting in the Wake of Disaster: Mothers and Fathers Respond to Hurricane - Katrina Lori Peek and Alice FothergillWomen in the Great Hanshin Earthquake - Reiko Masai, Lisa Kuzunishi and Tamiyo KondoVictims of Earthquake and Patriarchy: The 2005 Pakistan Earthquake - Azra Talat Sayeed"A Part of Me Had Left: " Learning from Women Farmers in Canada about Disaster Stress - Simone ReinschSupporting Women and Men on the Front Lines of Biological Disaster - Tracey L O′Sullivan and Carol A Amaratunga PART THREE: WOMEN′S ORGANIZED INITIATIVESOverview - P G Dhar ChakrabartiWe Can Make Things Better for Each Other′: Women and Girls Organize to Reduce Disasters in Central America - Maureen FordhamWomen′s Participation in Disaster Relief and Recovery - Ayse Yonder with Seng l Akçar and Prema GopalanWork-focused Responses to Disasters: India′s Self Employed Women′s Association - Francie Lund and Tony VauxA Climate for Change: Humanitarian Disaster and the Movement for the Commons in Kenya - Leigh Brownhill Sri Lankan Women′s Organizations Responding to Post-tsunami Violence - Sarah Fisher′A We Run Tings′: Women Rebuilding Montserrat - Judith Soares and Audrey Y MullingsWomen Responding to Drought in Brazil - Adélia de Melo BrancoPART FOUR: GENDER SENSITIVE DISASTER RISK REDUCTIONOverview - P G Dhar ChakrabartiBalancing Gender Vulnerabilities and Capacities in the Framework of Comprehensive Risk Management: The Case of Mexico - Cecilia Castro Garcia and Luisa Emilia Reyes ZuñigaTowards Gender Equality in Climate Change Policy: Challenges and Perspectives for the Future - Ulrike Röhr, Minu Hemmati and Yianna LambrouEngendering Tsunami Recovery in Sri Lanka: The Role of Unifem and its Partners - Chandni Joshi and Mihir R BhattGendering Disaster Risk Reduction: 57 Steps from Words to Action - Elaine Enarson Toolkit for Mainstreaming Gender in Emergency Response - P G Dhar Chakrabarti and Ajinder Walia Index

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.