In Chicago Tribune recently, came across an article "Natural disasters expose gender divides" about the disproportionate impact of natural disasters on women. Joni Seager eloquently points out, the heavy burden suffered by by non-Whites, the poor and women is not mutuallly exclusive, they are in fact linked. Illustrating this point, 15% of families in New Orleans lived in poverty before Katrina, 41% of families headed by women in New Orleans lived in poverty. Other points raised by Seager include:
It is no surprise that the impact of Katrina is not gender-neutral, disasters seldom are. In the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, 1.5 times more of the dead were women, after last year's Tsunami in Southeast Asia, 3-4 times more women than men died.
These disparities take place for many reasons including sexual differences (or perceived social perceptions of) strength.
Women are more likely to be caregivers who stop to gather children or to hold children in their arms, making it harder to swim/hang on.
Women are less likely to have drivers licences than men, let alone cars.
This knowlege seems to have been lost on government officials and the media who have barely covered the impact of the storm on women except for a few reports of rape that were not followed up in any kind of comprehensive way.
While we're about it, some interesting statistics, just in case you've forgotten what kind of a system we live in.
1. Every minute a woman dies of pregnancy and childbirth related complications. That is 500,000 women a year.
2. 70% off the 1.3 billion people in the world who live on less than $1.00/day are women.
3. 90 million of the 150 million children who do not go to school are girls.
4. Gender-based violence kills and disables more women between the ages of 15-44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined.
"Budget for the Human Family" to provide for non-military needs. The budget includes shelter, food, clean water, eliminating illiteracy, providing refugee relief and many other items. The total annual cost was $105.5 billion (versus the $900 billion that is spent on military spending each year).
Imagine what a little shift in our spending priorities could accomplish!
It is no surprise that the impact of Katrina is not gender-neutral, disasters seldom are. In the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, 1.5 times more of the dead were women, after last year's Tsunami in Southeast Asia, 3-4 times more women than men died.
These disparities take place for many reasons including sexual differences (or perceived social perceptions of) strength.
Women are more likely to be caregivers who stop to gather children or to hold children in their arms, making it harder to swim/hang on.
Women are less likely to have drivers licences than men, let alone cars.
This knowlege seems to have been lost on government officials and the media who have barely covered the impact of the storm on women except for a few reports of rape that were not followed up in any kind of comprehensive way.
While we're about it, some interesting statistics, just in case you've forgotten what kind of a system we live in.
1. Every minute a woman dies of pregnancy and childbirth related complications. That is 500,000 women a year.
2. 70% off the 1.3 billion people in the world who live on less than $1.00/day are women.
3. 90 million of the 150 million children who do not go to school are girls.
4. Gender-based violence kills and disables more women between the ages of 15-44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined.
"Budget for the Human Family" to provide for non-military needs. The budget includes shelter, food, clean water, eliminating illiteracy, providing refugee relief and many other items. The total annual cost was $105.5 billion (versus the $900 billion that is spent on military spending each year).
Imagine what a little shift in our spending priorities could accomplish!
posted by Susanna Duffy @ 11:40 PM
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