The Gendered Nature of Natural Disasters: The Impact of Catastrophic Events on the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy, 1981–2002

Abstract

Natural disasters do not affect people equally. In fact, a vulnerability approach to disasters would suggest that inequalities in exposure and sensitivity to risk as well as inequalities in access to resources, capabilities, and opportunities systematically disadvantage certain groups of people, rendering them more vulnerable to the impact of natural disasters. In this article we address the specific vulnerability of girls and women with respect to mortality from natural disasters and their aftermath. Biological and physiological differences between the sexes are unlikely to explain large‐scale gender differences in mortality rates. Social norms and role behaviors provide some further explanation, but what is likely to matter most is the everyday socioeconomic status of women. In a sample of up to 141 countries over the period 1981 to 2002 we analyze the effect of disaster strength and its interaction with the socioeconomic status of women on the change in the gender gap in life expectancy. We find, first, that natural disasters lower the life expectancy of women more than that of men. In other words, natural disasters (and their subsequent impact) on average kill more women than men or kill women at an earlier age than men. Since female life expectancy is generally higher than that of males, for most countries natural disasters narrow the gender gap in life expectancy. Second, the stronger the disaster (as approximated by the number of people killed relative to population size), the stronger this effect on the gender gap in life expectancy. That is, major calamities lead to more severe impacts on female life expectancy (relative to that of males) than do smaller disasters. Third, the higher women's socioeconomic status, the weaker is this effect on the gender gap in life expectancy. Taken together our results show that it is the socially constructed gender‐specific vulnerability of females built into everyday socioeconomic patterns that lead to the relatively higher female disaster mortality rates compared to men.

Gender, social norms, and survival in maritime disasters

“…Moreover, we find that the sex gap in survival rates has decreased since World War I. This supports previous findings that higher status of women in society improves their relative survival rate in disasters (41). We also show that women fare worse, rather than better, relative to men in maritime disasters involving British ships.…”

“…We interpret this as evidence that compliance with the WCF norm is exceptional in maritime disasters. That women fare worse than men has also been documented for natural disasters (38)(39)(40)(41)(42). We also find that crew members have a higher survival rate than passengers and that only 9 of 16 captains went down with their ships.…”

Quake'n and Shake'n... Forever! Long-Run Effects of Natural Disasters: A Case Study on the 1970 Ancash Earthquake

“…Second, we present evidence that suggests that shocks of this type can affect the descendants of the affected individuals. Finally, we show evidence of the existence of a gender bias where females are more affected than males, in concordance with the literature (Neumayer and Plümper, 2007).…”

Thrifty genes for obesity, an attractive but flawed idea, and an alternative perspective: the ‘drifty gene’ hypothesis

“…The people who die are children under the age of 10 years, and the elderly over the age of 40 years. [44][45][46][47] Regarding people aged over 40 years, they will, in most cases, have already passed on their genes; hence, their mortality could only have indirect effects, perhaps influencing the probability of mortality among their children or grandchildren, because of the absence of extended care. Moreover, mortality in children under 10 years cannot possibly have been biased towards the lean over the obese because childhood obesity was virtually unknown in all populations until very recently.…”