Natural Disaster and Women

It is an apparent paradox that human beings are all at once witnessing both persistent progress and increased feeling of insecurity. With a sharp increase in the number of events and intensity of natural disasters, this has become a burning issue for all societies. 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 the specific historical contexts that are produced through interactions among their political, economic, demographic, and environmental processes.

This volume sheds light on the gendered vulnerabilities to natural disasters. The focus of this volume is to interlink gender vulnerability to disasters. 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? This book 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.