Abstract
This paper examines changes in gender relations in a small coastal community as a result of the 2010 Chile earthquake and tsunami. Vulnerability and resilience are used as a conceptual framework to analyse these changes. Based on empirical evidence from a seven-year longitudinal study and quasi-ethnographic work, we explore changes in power relations at the different stages of the disaster and longer-term recovery as well as the conditions that fostered these changes. Our findings show distinct patterns of change. First, disasters can trigger long-lasting changes that challenge historical patriarchal relations. Second, while vulnerability increases following a disaster, resilience can potentially counteract women’s vulnerability. We propose that resilience can be a pathway to produce long-term changes in gender relations and empower women in the context of disasters.
Highlights
The importance of gender in the response to and recovery from disasters has been recognised as a priority by many humanitarian organisations
Findings show how vulnerability was intensified after the disaster and how resilience contributed to lessening gender vulnerability
Claiming that the changes in gender relations in El Morro were exclusively caused by the disaster is not possible due to social changes being facilitated by multiple variables such as the sociopolitical environment (Morrow and Peacock 1997; Norris et al 2008) and other factors from gender vulnerability scholarship may have affected the social change (Ajibade et al 2013; David and Enarson 2012)
Summary
The importance of gender in the response to and recovery from disasters has been recognised as a priority by many humanitarian organisations. The Sendai Framework for Action recognises the critical role of women in managing disaster risk and promoting gender-equitable policies (UNISDR 2015). Nat Hazards (2018) 92:205–224 response to climate change and disasters is in its infancy—more rhetoric and aspirations than action and practice (Bradshaw and Fordham 2014; UN Women, 2016). Along with cultural and patriarchal systems of power, have meant that disasters engender disproportionate impacts on women (Cutter 2017). Countries are yet to fully integrate gender issues in an integrated and systematic manner into their climate change and disaster risk reduction (DRR) interventions (UN, 2016)
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