Capítulo XV. Women's leadership in disaster contexts. Reconstruction, resilience, and sustainability

• Author: Mar Montalvo y Elisa Isabel Gavari Starkie
• Profession: UNED, España
• Pages: 235-258

CAPÍTULO XV

WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP IN DISASTER CONTEXTS.

RECONSTRUCTION, RESILIENCE, AND SUSTAINABILITY

Mar Montalvo y Elisa Isabel Gavari Starkie

UNED, España

1. INTRODUCTION

Over the last couple of decades, new ways of acting in risk scenarios have

emerged. In the present text we consider risk not as a “natural” phenomenon but as

a social construction resulting from processes, decisions and actions derived from

existing economic growth models and the di erent development styles of societies.

In this way, pre-existing conditions, intersectoral relations (class, ethnicity, gender,

caste, etc.) and those established within social structures, can increase or decrease

its consequences (Velázquez Gutiérrez, 2018).

From this approach disasters raises a challenge such as to think and intervene

in a di erent way than a more thaditional focus. It implies considering the space of

social relations as a risk scenario.  is is, we understand disaster in a comprehensive

manner. Therefore we take into account both, the implementing actions that

decrease the impact in relation to human and material losses, but also the elements

that reduce inequalities. We are looking for factors in the light of the disaster that

may have widened the gap in existing vulnerabilities within populations (Velázquez

Gutiérrez, 2018).

 roughout the text we consider gender as a key element in the con guration of

identity, intimate relationships, domestic routines, legal status, access to resources

and other aspects of social life. We also intend to consider gender in the disaster life

cycle that in uences capacities, decisions and outcomes. Within this framework

we insist in not only the gender inequalities that contribute substantially to disaster

vulnerability. We also consider the capacity for action and resilience in crisis

M M  E I G S

236

materializes and in uences, to an even greater extent, such as how disaster risk is

created and subsequently managed (Enarson, et al., 2017).

Although currently the theoretical landscape guiding research on the study of

disasters is much broader and is conducted from multiple disciplines. In addition the

basis of research on gender and disasters is still grounded from a social-ecological

approach. From which it is examined how social actors relate to each other by

integrating into complex multilevel social systems that, as a result of dynamic and

historical processes, perpetuate di erentiated access to resources (Enarson, et al.,

2017).

Gender differences in terms of norms, household division of labour, jobs,

demographic and structural patterns, place women and men in di erentiated spaces.

It is clear that when disaster occurs women reveal a higher morbidity and mortality.

 is fact is shown in some examples such as the data from the 2004 tsunami where

in some villages in Sri Lanka three times more women than men died as a result of

how women’s daily lives unfold (Enarson, et al., 2017).

 e unequal vulnerability of di erent social groups to disasters is not determined

by the hazard itself. This is generated through the differences in exposure to

physical risk caused by certain discriminatory aspects rooted in power structures

and dominant sociocultural rules that regulate access to opportunities and people’s

behavior within the community and in private life (Zaidi & Fordham, 2021).

Much of the disaster scienti c literature uses the term gender vulnerability

in reference to the one of women and girls. Both gender and disaster policies and

programmes follow this same line, reproducing a narrative that downplays women’s

important role as agents of resilience and risk reduction, while perpetuating

stereotypical notions of women’s vulnerability, as victims, as the weaker sex (Zaidi

& Fordham, 2021).

 e Sendai Framework (2015-2030) for Disaster Risk Prevention and the 2030

Agenda, through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), stresses the need to

consider a gendered approach to risk prevention before, during and a er disasters.

But is gender included in speci c actions within disaster risk reduction programmes?

Gender stereotypes that remain entrenched in today’s societies make it di cult

for women to exercise leadership in disaster and post-disaster reconstruction

based on resilience.  ey thus limit the realisation of a more sustainable process by

perpetuating their traditional role as caregivers.

In this way, through this chapter we seek in first place to find out whether

women’s leadership in disaster contexts favours a more resilient and sustainable

reconstruction process. In second place we analyse in whet terms international and

national frameworks on risk prevention include a gender approach that favours