Educational Materials
We all learn from one another, sometimes through word-of-mouth or family networks, sometimes by sharing stories and songs and our art work. More every year also learn in a classroom or through independent study about sex and gender in the lives of those caught up in disasters. There is a real need for US-focused teaching and training materials.
College Coursework
More work is needed to integrate two decades of gender and disaster research into the post-secondary curriculum in the US where emergency management or disaster studies are taught, and where students study environmental justice, ethnic studies, gender and women’s studies, community organizing, planning, public health, communication and a host of additional related topics.
Bibliographies with US Materials
Selected Readings on Gender and Disaster (2005)
Women and Climate Change (check back soon)
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Texts with US Gender and Disaster Materials
Women Confronting Natural Disaster: From Vulnerability to Resilience, E. Enarson, 2013 https://www.rienner.com/title/Women_Confronting_Natural_Disaster_From_Vulnerability_to_Resilience
The Women of Katrina: How Gender, Race and Class Matter in an American Disaster, E. David and E. Enarson (eds.), 2013 http://www.vanderbiltuniversitypress.com/books/437/the-women-of-katrina
Social Vulnerability to Disasters, Phillips et al. (Eds.),2nd edition 2012. Including gender-sensitive materials including chapters on Gender (E. Enarson), on Households and Family (L. Blinn-Pike), and on Violence (B. Phillips, E. Enarson, P. Jenkins). http://www.amazon.com/Social-Vulnerability-Disasters-BrendaPhillips/dp/1420078569
A Social Vulnerability Approach to Disasters, FEMA Higher Education Project Course, free/on-line. Includes gender materials throughout, and chapters on gender, families and households, and violence.
Women and Disaster: From Theory to Practice, Phillips and Morrow (Eds.), 2009. Based on Women and Disaster, special edition of the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters (Morrow and Phillips, eds, 1997) with two additional chapters.
Heads Above Water: Gender, Class, and Family in the Grand Forks Flood, Fothergill, 2004
Women at Ground Zero, Hagan and Carouba, 2002
Hurricane Andrew: Ethnicity, Gender and the Sociology of Disaster, Peacock, Morrow and Gladwin (Eds.), 1997
The Gendered Terrain of Disaster: Through Women’s Eyes, Enarson and Morrow (Eds.). 1998. Includes chapters on the Berkeley/Oakland fires, Iowa floods, aftershocks in California, hurricane Andrew in Miami, and domestic violence in two American communities hit by disaster. The entire book can be accessed here. The editors own copyright and will soon share this book at no cost in the spirit of Aaron Swartz. Visit academia.edu to download all chapters. Chapters can also be downloaded hrough CRID, the Regional Disaster Information Center for Latin America and the Caribbean (search terms “gender” and “women”). Thanks. CRID!
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Sample Syllabi
Survivors’ Stories and Disaster Policies: Gendered Perspectives on Catastrophe Mitigation from Katrina to Terror Attacks (Driskill, 2011)
Women and Climate Change (Enarson, 2010)
Gender and Disaster (David, 2009)
Gender and Disaster (Enarson, 2009)
Women and Social Crisis (Enarson, 2004)
Women in Disaster (Enarson, 2001)
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Fact Sheets and Handouts
Women and Climate Change, UN WomenWatch
Climate Change and Women, Oxfam
Women and Disaster, E. Enarson for Sociologists for Women in Society
Issues Facing Women After Disasters, E. Enarson, GDN
Does Violence Against Women Increase in Disasters? A Fact Sheet, E. Enarson, 2012
Women and Natural Disasters, PAHO
Gender and Women's Health in Disasters, WHO
Gender in Crisis Response, ILO
See the Gender and Disaster Sourcebook for additional fact sheets and teaching resources. How many of these international resources can or should be adapted to US conditions?
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Gender and Disaster Conference Papers
Annual gender workshops are held at the Australasian Natural Hazards Management Conference. Visit their website for more information about speakers and topics, many of which mirror those of concern here in the US.
Annual Gender and Disaster Roundtable meetings are held in conjunction with the Boulder, CO Natural Hazards Workshop sponsored by the University of Colorado. Gender and Disaster Roundtable Notes from 2008 are available. Additionally, the workshop often includes gender sessions in the regular program, e.g. Gender Specific Disaster Efforts, 2008
Gender and Disaster: New Thinking, New Directions, 2006 [Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada ]
Gender Equality and Disaster Risk Reduction Workshop, 2004 [Honolulu]
This international meeting included many US participants. Visit Participant Commentaries for regional views on gender and disaster and Background papers. And look under Lessons learned for links to proceedings from conferences in Vancouver, 1998; Miami, 2000, and Pakistan, 1996.
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Selected International Resources
The links below provide an excellent foundation for global approaches to gender equality and disaster risk reduction. Visit the website of the Gender and Disaster Network to locate many more. Each year brings more and better resources for planners and responders, often highlighting the leadership of local women.
Yet, we have failed to take on board these lessons “from the South” and apply them in more affluent Northern regions and countries like the US, though the overlap is substantial. There is a real lack of resources in this area by, about and for those of us facing disaster in the United States.
Gender and Disaster Sourcebook
Visit the Sourcebook for a comprehensive clearinghouse The G&D Sourcebook project involved a team of international writers and researchers and was supported by the Public Entity Risk Institute and the Pacific Disaster Centerof the East/West Center. Organized by theme as well as region, the Sourcebook was finalized in 2005 and moved to the GDN website in 2009.
On the homepage of the GDN you will find numerous recent and foundational paper and reports, many unpublished or otherwise unavailable.
Gender and Disaster Network of Canada The website of this country-specific “node” of the global Gender and Disaster Network is currently under development—stay tuned!
UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, Gender Page Foundational papers can be found here and links to two excellent “Good Practice” documents from a global perspective, on disaster risk reduction and on climate change.
UN agencies including IFEM, FAO, FPA, UNICEF, WHO, ILO, UNDP and others now post gender materials relating to humanitarian relief and, less commonly, resources relating gender to the reduction of risk through gender equitable development and preparedness.
Disaster Watch aids grassroots women's collectives to exchange learn and evaluate disaster response initiatives and the performance of government and aid agencies. First held in Gujarat in February 2002, a year after the earthquake, when a team of women from disaster sites in Turkey and India traveled there to monitor institutional support for women communities, Disaster Watch has since developed and tested innovative and women-led approaches in the rescue and recovery phases of four major disasters in three countries. An initiative of the post-Beijing Huairou Commission, Disaster Watch adopts a disaster–to-development strategy that leads to social innovation, use of local resources, transformation of social and political agendas, and the deepening of a participatory government. Currently, the focus is on implementing and institutionalizing women’s leadership in sustained efforts to build community resilience. This website has a wealth of information about how women outside the US are organizing to reduce risk.
Please send additional information and links to usgdra@gmail.com.
