Class

Gender Issues in Disaster Management: The Latur Earthquake

Citation:

Krishnaraj, Maithreyi. 1997. “Gender Issues in Disaster Management: The Latur Earthquake.” Gender, Technology and Development 1 (3): 395–411.

Author: Maithreyi Krishnaraj

Abstract:

This study maintains that the impact of disasters depends on the nature and intensity of the event, but in all cases the impact varies according to the degree of vulnerability of the social groups that constitute the affected population. Women, being more socially and economically vulnerable than men in most societies, are more severely affected than men. This article highlights the gendered impact of the earthquake and the bias against women in the management of the earthquake in Latur, India.

Topics: Class, Economies, Economic Inequality, Environment, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 1997

Food Crisis, Nutrition, and Female Children in Rural Bangladesh

Citation:

Bairagi, Radheshyam. 1986. “Food Crisis, Nutrition, and Female Children in Rural Bangladesh.” Population and Development Review 12 (2): 307–15.

Author: Radheshyam Bairagi

Abstract:

Although almost all nations show lower female than male mortality, Bangladesh and certain other developing countries show higher female mortality rates. Among children aged 1 to 4 in Bangladesh, female mortality rates are 45% higher for girls than for boys. This paper examines whether 1) sex biased attitudes toward nutrition (as expressed in terms of food intake) are more marked during food crises, and 2) these biases are related to the socioeconomic status of the family. The study measured weight and height of approximately 1400 children aged 1 to 4 in Bangladesh from April 1975 (10 months after the famine began) through December 1976 (14 months after the famine ended). The findings clearly indicate that sex and social status are strong correlates of nutritional status. Children of higher status families with larger homes fared better throughout the time period. Within each status category, boys fared better than girls. While poor families were harder hit by famine than wealthier ones, male-female nutritional discrimination was stronger among the higher classes. These differences were accentuated during the famine period. Policy makers and planners in Bangladesh must be made aware that such sex biases exist and that these patterns are exacerbated during food shortages. (NCBI)

Topics: Class, Economies, Economic Inequality, Poverty, Environment, Environmental Disasters, Food Security, Gender, Girls Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh

Year: 1986

"Go Back and Tell Them Who the Real Men Are!" Gendering Our Understanding of Kibera's Post-Election Violence

Citation:

Kihato, Caroline Wanjiku. 2015. “'Go Back and Tell Them Who the Real Men Are!' Gendering Our Understanding of Kibera’s Post-Election Violence.” International Journal of Conflict and Violence 9 (1): 12-24.

Author: Caroline Wanjiku Kihato

Abstract:

Using a gendered analysis, this article examines the post election violence (PEV) in Kibera, Kenya, between December 2007 and February 2008. Through indepth interviews with Kibera residents, the article interrogates how gender influenced violent mobilizations in Kenya’s most notorious slum. Most scholarly analyses have tended to understand the post-election violence as a result of politicized ethnic identities, class, and local socio-economic dynamics. Implicitly or explicitly, these frameworks assume that women are victims of violence while men are its perpetrators, and ignore the ways in which gender, which cuts across these categories, produces and shapes conflict. Kibera’s conflict is often ascribed to the mobilization of disaffected male youths by political “Big Men.” But the research findings show how men, who would ordinarily not go to war, are obliged to fight to “save face” in their communities and how women become integral to the production of violent exclusionary mobilizations. Significantly, notions of masculinity and femininity modified the character of Kibera’s conflict. Acts of gender-based violence, gang rapes, and forced circumcisions became intensely entwined with ethno-political performances to annihilate opposing groups. The battle for political power was also a battle of masculinities.

Keywords: conflict, xenophobia, violence

Topics: Class, Ethnicity, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender Roles, Femininity/ies, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Masculinism, Governance, Elections, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Kenya

Year: 2015

The Privilege of Revolution: Gender, Class, Space, and Affect in Egypt

Citation:

Winegar, Jessica. 2012. “The Privilege of Revolution: Gender, Class, Space, and Affect in Egypt.” American Ethnologist 39 (1): 67–70.

Author: Jessica Winegar

Abstract:

In this commentary, I challenge assumptions about political transformation by contrasting women's experiences at home during the Egyptian revolution with the image of the iconic male revolutionary in Tahrir Square. I call attention to the way that revolution is experienced and undertaken in domestic spaces, through different forms of affect, in ways deeply inflected by gender and class.

Keywords: Egypt, revolution, Gender, class, space, affect, generation

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Class, Gender, Women, Men, Gender Roles, Households Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa, Asia, Middle East Countries: Egypt

Year: 2012

Engendering Energy in Ethiopia: The Role of Solar Energy in Improving Rural Women’s Socio-Economic Conditions in Tigrai Region

Citation:

Gebregiorgis, Gebrecherkos. 2015. “Engendering Energy in Ethiopia: The Role of Solar Energy in Improving Rural Women’s Socio-Economic Conditions in Tigrai Region.” International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology 7 (1): 8–20.

Author: Gebrecherkos Gebregiorgis

Abstract:

This study was conducted on the role of solar energy in improving the socio-economic conditions of women in Tigrai region, Ethiopia. The specific objectives of the study were to assess the extent of solar energy use, to examine the role of solar energy in promoting women’s income earning strategies and access to social services; to document the perceptions and attitudes of women beneficiaries towards solar energy interventions and assess the challenges and prospects. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative research methods (mainly surveys and ethnography). Primary data were gathered from different sources including beneficiary women household heads, local residents and pertinent administrative bodies. The specific tools for primary data collection include household questionnaires, semi-structured interviews with key informants, focus group discussions, and in-depth interviewing. The study also made use of secondary data obtained from reports and various documents. Primary data were analyzed using descriptive statistics including tables, charts and percentages using appropriate software. Qualitative data were presented in narrative descriptions while the results of the case studies were presented in the form of illustrative boxes to substantiate and consolidate major quantitative findings. The findings of the study indicate a substantial shift from biomass use to photovoltaic(PV) electricity which has improved women’s access to income and social services: shops and cinema houses flourished; radio and TV sets could be used to obtain information; schools and health posts gave better services and the time and energy women spent fulfilling their traditional roles such as cooking was reduced allowing them to actively participate in development activities like soil and water conservation. Major constraints and challenges identified were mainly related to sustainability: problems associated with maintenance, inaccessibility of spare parts, lack of technical skill to operate the systems, lack of follow-ups from concerned bodies as well as financial constraints.

Keywords: solar energy, socio-economic impacts, women, Tigrai, Ethiopia

Topics: Class, Economies, Education, Gender, Women, Health, Households, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Ethiopia

Year: 2015

'It Was Better During the War': Narratives of Everyday Violence in a Palestinian Refugee Camp

Citation:

Latif, Nadia. 2012. “‘it Was Better during the War’: Narratives of Everyday Violence in a Palestinian Refugee Camp.” Feminist Review 101 (1): 24–40. doi:10.1057/fr.2011.55.

Author: Nadia Latif

Abstract:

The distinction between what is commonly regarded as the routine of impoverishment and what is acknowledged and remarked upon as violence is increasingly being questioned in scholarship and public policy circles. Interrogating the distinction between routine and remarkable not only reveals the habits and relationships constituting everyday life as the site of violence, but also foregrounds questions of gender. Given that the everyday is shaped by a given community's norms regarding the gendered division of labour that produces and reproduces the conditions of the everyday, in what ways is violence as well as its experience gendered? This article examines this question in the particular context of Palestinian camp refugees’ lived experience of forced displacement in Lebanon. It explores the ways in which the violence used against Palestinian camp refugees draws on norms regarding masculinity and femininity shared by the refugees as well as their Lebanese oppressors. It also examines the ways in which Palestinian camp refugees’ everyday experience of impoverishment as well as the acknowledged violence of forced displacement, subjection to Lebanese military intelligence control, and participation in the armed struggle for national liberation are constituted by and constitutive of unequal subject positions of gender, class and citizenship.

Keywords: Palestinian refugees, Palestinian refugee camps, Gender, violence, Lebanese civil war, the everyday

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Citizenship, Class, Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Refugee/IDP Camps, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Lebanon, Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2012

Unemployment and Fatherhood: Gender, Culture and National Context

Citation:

Strier, Roni. 2014. “Unemployment and Fatherhood: Gender, Culture and National Context.” Gender, Work & Organization 21 (5): 395–410. doi:10.1111/gwao.12044.

Abstract:

Hegemonic representations of masculinity and dominant images of fatherhood have usually been linked to the domain of work. This article explores the experiences of men under the hardship of unemployment and the impact of these experiences on the construction of their gender identities, specifically on the construction of their fatherhood identity. In addition, the article examines how culture and national context affect the interrelationship between unemployment and fatherhood. Drawing on a post-structural constructivist theoretical perspective, the article describes a qualitative study of low-income unemployed Palestinian fathers in Israel. The study examines three areas of interest: perceptions of fatherhood, the experience of unemployment and the impact of unemployment on the construction of fatherhood. On the theoretical level, the article proposes a conceptualization of the relationship between unemployment and fatherhood. It argues that in order to generalize the impact of unemployment on fatherhood, we must first examine the context in which gendered and cultural perceptions of fatherhood are embedded. On a policy level, the article offers some recommendations for developing more contextualized, gender- and cultural-sensitive policies for unemployed fathers.

Topics: Civil Society, Class, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Economies, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Political Economies Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Israel, Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2014

Globalization, Gender, and Poverty in the Senegal River Valley

Citation:

Koopman, Jeanne E. 2009. “Globalization, Gender, and Poverty in the Senegal River Valley.” Feminist Economics 15 (3): 253–85. 

Author: Jeanne E. Koopman

Abstract:

In an impressive attempt to guarantee food security, well over two billion dollars have been invested in the modernization of the agrarian economy in the Senegal River Valley. But, even though two huge dams and thousands of village-based irrigation schemes have been constructed since the late 1970s, food security is still as illusive as ever. This study attempts to explain why. In doing so it focuses on the impact of donor-dominated macro-structural change on gender and class relations. This analytical perspective has two benefits: First, it reveals the risks posed by foreign domination of development programs for different segments of the rural population. Second, it points to a critical element in a new approach to improving farm productivity and food security - improving women's access to land and technology.

Keywords: food security, foreign aid, inequality, structural adjustment, women's land rights

Topics: Class, Development, Economies, Poverty, Food Security, Gender, Women, Infrastructure Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Senegal

Year: 2009

The Story of an African Famine: Gender and Famine in Twentieth-Century Malawi

Citation:

Vaughan, Megan. 2007. The Story of an African Famine: Gender and Famine in Twentieth-Century Malawi. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Author: Megan Vaughan

Annotation:

This account of the 1949 famine in colonial Malawi employs a wide variety of historical sources, ranging from Colonial Office documentation to the songs of women who lived through the tragedy. The analysis of the causes and development of the famine takes the reader through a detailed agricultural and social history of Southern Malwai in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing in particular on the nature of social and economic stratification, changes in kinship systems and the position of women and placing all this within the wider context of the impact of colonial rule. (Google Books)

Topics: Agriculture, Class, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Economies, Environment, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Malawi

Year: 2007

Social Security and the Family: Coping with Seasonality and Calamity in Rural India

Citation:

Agarwal, Bina. 1990. “Social Security and the Family: Coping with Seasonality and Calamity in Rural India.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 17 (3): 341–412. 

Author: Bina Agarwal

Abstract:

This article examines how poor rural families in India cope with the food insecurity associated with seasonal troughs in the agricultural production cycle, and with calamities such as drought and famine; the effectiveness of the coping mechanisms they adopt; the intra-household sharing of the burden of coping; and the appropriate state and nonstate interventions that would strengthen the survival mechanisms adopted by the families themselves. The family is seen here as a bargaining unit, the ability of different members to command food (among other resources) depending on their relative bargaining strengths, determined in turn by their ownership endowments (of land, labour, etc.), exchange entitlements, and external social and communal support systems. Gender and age both form the basis of intrafamily inequality in this respect. While seasonality reveals a face of the family which is one of cooperation, famine mirrors one of disintegration. In both contexts, the burden of coping falls disproportionately on female members within poor households, traceable to women's already weak and further weakened (during calamity) bargaining position within the family. A re‐interpretation of existing facts about the 1943 Bengal famine illustrates the process of family disintegration and the abandonment of wives and children during a severe calamity. State efforts complemented by nonstate interventions therefore need to be directed to programmes that ‘empower’ poor families and the more vulnerable members within them.

Topics: Age, Agriculture, Class, Environment, Environmental Disasters, Food Security, Gender, Women, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 1990

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