Women's Vulnerability to Natural Disasters: a Social Construct

The present paper 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. The methodology of research was quantitative and its method was survey. Among 384 men and women aged 15-65 in Gorgan and Kerman provinces (in general 768 persons) were selected 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 and cultural problems or the traditional thinking patterns of men about women and lack of 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's emotional and psychological vulnerability (due to emotionality, fear and anxiety, etc.); the social conditions 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 implies that the natural disasters are intrinsically social phenomenas and they are rooted in a social structure or system. Hence, women's vulnerability to natural disasters can be traced back to as construction and the consequence of social structures and semantic systems, which makes the division of the role of men and women produces and reproduces this vulnerability.