Observation .
D . Host Nation Gender Considerations in Humanitarian Assistance / Disaster Relief ( Lesson # 2487 )
Studies have shown that women have higher mortality rates than men during natural disasters , due primarily to vulnerabilities arising from gender inequalities and cultural gender roles . Yet despite this vulnerability and their capacity to address disasters , local women are often excluded from humanitarian assistance / disaster relief ( HA / DR ) and prevention measures . As such , all humanitarian actors involved in disaster response ( including the Host Nation ( HN ), United Nations ( UN ), U . S . Government , military , civil society , international agencies , etc .) need to understand how HN men and women may be impacted by disasters , mainstream such gender considerations into disaster response , and include HN women in leadership , as encouraged by several UN Frameworks .
Discussion .
During natural disasters , mortality rates for women are typically much higher than for men , as shown through several studies . This was primarily brought to attention during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami which struck 14 countries , including Indonesia , Sri Lanka , and India , with approximately 230,000 fatalities . Oxfam found in a 2005 study that in the worst affected villages in Aceh , Indonesia , 80 % of victims were female , and approximately three times as many women were killed as men in Cuddalore , India . Other disasters have produced similar results . Victims of the 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh that killed 140,000 were 90 % girls and women . Furthermore , one study of life expectancy within natural disasters from 141 countries between 1981 and 2002 showed that natural disasters lower the life expectancy of women much more so than that of men . Even more recently , the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that struck East Japan produced 54 % female fatalities in the country ’ s three most affected prefectures .
The disproportionate vulnerability of women to disasters is exacerbated by gender inequalities in access to resources / opportunities . If only men have access to early warning and evacuation information , for example , women experience more adverse effects from natural disasters . During the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone , women were ill-informed about the coming hazard and were not allowed to make decisions to evacuate , resulting in an extremely high percentage of female fatalities . In Sri Lanka , more women than men were killed from the Indian Ocean tsunami because they lacked skills of tree climbing and swimming that were needed to survive the tsunami – skills which had only been taught to men . In Indonesia , the tsunami hit women the hardest because the men were either out fishing at sea in the coastal areas or working in the fields in the agricultural areas , while women were home with children . A woman ’ s socioeconomic status greatly affects the gender gap in mortality rates – the higher her status , the smaller the gap . Thus , it is not primarily the biological / physical capabilities of women per se that put them at a disadvantage – it is “ inequalities in access to resources , capabilities , and opportunities [ that ] systematically disadvantage certain groups of people , rendering the more vulnerable to the impact of natural disasters ,” ( Neumayer , p . 2 ).
Even if a woman survives a disaster , she faces many challenges if aid is not incorporated in a gendersensitive way . In immediate response efforts , it is important to understand different needs of men , women , boys , and girls , arising in part from vulnerabilities due to inequality and from women ’ s exclusion from decision-making in these arenas . Immediate concerns for surviving women included
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