NATURAL DISASTER AND WOMEN: A Gendered Perspective

It is an apparent paradox that human beings are all at once witnessing both persistent progress and increased feeling of insecurity. With sharp increase in the number of events and intensity of natural disasters, it has become a burning issue for all societies. The fact of the matter is that socio-economic development and disasters have originated in the same ongoing processes of change. Consequently, as the world population grows, some people are more exposed to hazards than others because of their specific historical contexts that are produced through interactions among the political, economic, demographic and environmental processes. To embark on this endeavour, this volume sheds some light on the gendered vulnerabilities to natural disasters. The broad debate of this volume is to interlink gender vulnerability to disasters. It addresses some basic and relevant questions: Why and how do women face greater exposure and risk to natural disasters? What are the ways to integrate gender concerns in disaster risk reduction in order to make women and children less vulnerable? As such, this volume presents a foundation for disciplinary, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research for social scientists and social workers. It further provides a huge source of groundwork for science-based decision making by planners, emergency managers and other practicing professionals.