The Gendered Body Politics in Disaster Policy and Practice

Citation:

Rushton, Ashleigh, Suzanne Phibbs, Christine Kenney, and Cheryl Anderson. 2020. "The Gendered Body Politics in Disaster Policy and Practice." International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 47.

Authors: Ashleigh Rushton, Suzanne Phibbs, Christine Kenney, Cheryl Anderson

Abstract:

The field of gender and disasters emerged from the notion that a disaster is a physically and socially constructed event. Recognition that women's position in society and the home increases vulnerabilities to disasters has led to the development and application of gender in disaster policy and practice over the last three decades. Gender research has been important to ensure women's needs are recognised and assistance provided in an appropriate manner within disaster contexts. However, ‘gender and disaster’ has become synonymous with the interests and concerns of women due to enduring structural inequalities that extend into disaster management. Drawing on sets of understandings about the body politic within social and political theory, which considers how the male body underpins sets of understandings about the ‘neutral’, idealised gender, this paper reviews how an inclusive understanding of gender and disasters may be developed through considering the strengths of, and challenges for, men. There has been limited analyses of the broader perceptions and personal experiences of men impacted by disasters. Therefore, expanding this scholarship through an analysis of masculinity will provide a foundation for understanding men's stories and experiences of disaster.

Keywords: gender, disaster, DRR, women, men, masculinity

Topics: Environment, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Masculinity/ies

Year: 2020