“Pa Manyen Fanm Nan Konsa”: Intersectionality, Structural Violence, and Vulnerability Before and After Haiti's Earthquake

Abstract

On January 12, 2010, an earthquake in Haiti sent shockwaves across the world, triggering an unprecedented international response. In the months that followed, international news, legal, development, human rights, and solidarity agencies highlighted the issue of gender-based violence, which has by all accounts increased since the earthquake. Despite activists' nuanced understanding and efforts, official responses have been inadequate while reproducing troubling, albeit familiar, discourses that tend to trigger either denial or demonization. This article aims to address this situation by offering necessary context, grounding violence in Haitian women's own analyses, before and after the earthquake. To understand the narratives and realities Haitian women face, it is critical to first understand structural violence, the long-term, often invisible system of inequality and poverty and how structural violence intersects with intersectionality, the multiple forms of oppression based on distinct but overlapping identities, such as of race, class, gender, sexuality, age, and parental status. As in other contexts, these pre-existing gender inequalities rendered Haitian women more vulnerable to disasters. Through the testimonies and lived realities of Haitian women, this article highlights the continuities and argues for the need for intersectional interventions grounded in Haitian women's own lived experiences and priorities.