User:Tv21321/Disaster response

Disproportionate impact that disasters have on women’s income:

In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, an affected population has a number of needs. In disaster response relief, many actors tend to focus on addressing the most immediate needs first. For example, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) emphasizes that:

response efforts will focus on the immediate provision of quality life-saving humanitarian supplies, including ready-to-eat rations and food baskets, basic relief items for the most vulnerable households, including light hygiene and dignity kits, and a series of initial – and largely mobile - emergency protection interventions. Delivery of basic services will be supported through the reinforcement of available service providers relating to sectors including health, WASH, shelter, protection and education in the areas hosting those newly displaced.

These priorities are more than just addressing basic needs, as they represent shared needs between men and women. Consequently, addressing these needs first, helps disaster relief responses to reach as many people as possible. While meeting these gender inclusive needs are critical, men and women also have different needs which must be addressed. Specifically, there are biological differences between men and women, which create different needs. For instance, the needs of women in a post-disaster context can include; having access to menstrual products, having access to a secure toilet (as going to a non secure toilet can leave women more vulnerable to the potential for rape or sexual assault) and having critical pre or post natal services, to name a few. These areas are also immediate needs that need to be addressed in post-disaster relief responses. Beyond women’s immediate needs, women can face long term disparities as a result of disasters. Specifically, in terms of their income.

Women’s income is disproportionately impacted by disasters. A study undertaken by Le Masson et al. in 2016, found that following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, “the ratio of women’s to men’s earnings in New Orleans declined from 81.6% prior to the disaster to 61.8% in 2006”. Underlying this disproportionate impact are gendered vulnerabilities. One notable gendered vulnerability is the double burden. The double burden is the combination of paid and unpaid work. One of the key forms of unpaid labor is care labor. Care labor (also referred to as social reproduction) encompasses, “tasks of providing for dependants, for children, the sick, the elderly and all the rest of us”. This double burden exacerbates the unequal impact that disasters have on women. Lafrenière, Sweetman and Thylin emphasize that “women operate as unpaid carers keeping societies and economies functioning...Poverty and crisis make this unpaid work even more critical for survival. This makes it imperative for humanitarian responders to understand the scope and extent of this unpaid care work and to work with women carers”. Another critical underlying gendered vulnerability is unequal access to economic resources. Globally, “women have less access to livelihoods assets (such as financial accounts) and opportunities than men”. In times of disaster, the lack of access to sufficient financial resources can “force [women] to turn to risky behaviour such as prostitution or transactional sex as a means of survival. Crises also tend to increase the burdens of care and household responsibilities for women, making their ability to economically support themselves and their dependents more difficult”.