We Will Make Meaning Out of This: Women’s Cultural Responses to the Red River Valley Flood

Citation:

Enarson, Elaine. 2000. “We Will Make Meaning Out of This: Women’s Cultural Responses to the Red River Valley Flood.” International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters 18 (1).

Author: Elaine Enarson

Abstract:

Recent work on gender relations in disasters focuses largely on women’s material experiences and vulnerabilities. This paper draws on cultural studies theory to interrogate gender symbolically in the context of a major U.S. flood. Based on analysis of cultural artifacts and “as well as interviews conducted for a larger study of women’s work in the 1997 Red River Valley flood, the author argues that women particularly employ grassroots popular culture to interpret disastrous events. A close reading of two flood quilts illustrates how interpersonal networks and traditional quilting skills helped women express gender-specific experiences and feelings, and convey an otherwise neglected ecofeminist critique of disaster vulnerability. The author concludes that women’s cultural responses to disasters afford a neglected angle of vision on human responses to catastrophe.

Topics: Environment, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, Femininity/ies Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2000