Gendered experience of disaster: Women's account of evacuation, relief and recovery in Nepal

Abstract

This paper presents an in-depth analysis of women earthquake survivors during and after the 2015 earthquake in Nepal by looking at women's experience of evacuation, relief, and recovery. In particular, it examines how gender intersects with socio-economic factors such as citizenship, caste, ethnicity, income, debt, and location to shape women's disaster experience. It concerns a real-time ethnography: one of the authors is an earthquake survivor who documented women's earthquake stories while living in the camps near her neighbourhood. The paper presents findings that contribute to the literature on gender and disaster. First, it shows how women's knowledge and actions helped save and protect their families during and after the earthquake. Second, it discusses how women face discrimination when accessing relief due to unequal citizenship and other legal rights. Third, the paper shows how the debt brought about by disaster is gendered. Fourth, the paper argues how disaster shifts patriarchal gender norms, provides opportunities to take up new roles, and develops new confidence. As a result, some women could utilize the disaster aftermath to break through ‘cultural gender taboos’ that discriminated against them.