Women's Studies
Karam Habibpour Gatabi
Abstract
The present study uses feminist and critical theories to study the vulnerability of women in natural disasters in order to optimize the management of natural disaster risk with the aim of reducing their vulnerability. This research has a quantitative methodology using survey. Among 384 men and women ...
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The present study uses feminist and critical theories to study the vulnerability of women in natural disasters in order to optimize the management of natural disaster risk with the aim of reducing their vulnerability. This research has a quantitative methodology using survey. Among 384 men and women aged 15-65 in Gorgan and Kerman provinces, we selected some people based on cluster and proportional stratification sampling methods. The results showed that the most important areas of vulnerability of women in natural disasters were lack of security, lack of employment, lack or weakness of education in the field of natural disasters, cultural problems or the traditional thinking patterns of men about women, no belief in women's participation in disasters. Meanwhile, the most important contexts of women's vulnerability to natural disasters were, as compared to men, the potential and background of women emotional and psychological vulnerability. The social conditions are defined for women in the society and the lack of respect for women's rights by the society and authorities; the physical vulnerability of women; and the preservation of Hijab at the time of the disaster. The findings imply that the natural disasters are intrinsically social phenomena rooted from a social structure or system. Hence, vulnerability of women to natural disasters can be traced back to a construction and the consequence of social structures and semantic systems, which makes the division in the roles of men and women that, produces and reproduces this vulnerability.
