Gendered aspects of long-term disaster resilience in Victoria, Australia

Abstract

Long-term resilience is influenced by a multitude of factors associated with emergencies and disasters and the long and pressured aftermath. Previous traumatic life events and mental and physical ill-health contribute. While class, race, sexuality and ability all affect capacity for resilience, this paper focuses on gender. Of the 56 people interviewed in this study, 30 identified as women and 26 as men, with none indicating gender/sexual diversity. The findings centre on traditional gendered expectations of men and women, noting their salience particularly in times of disaster, so gendered analysis based on ‘women’ and ‘men’ is used. This paper draws on the gendered aspects of qualitative research conducted in 2018 (Parkinson, Duncan & Kaur 2018) and contributes to an identified dearth of long-term disaster resilience research (Spencer, Majeed & McArdle 2018). The 56 study participants remembered disasters from the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires to the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires and even earlier fires and floods in Victoria back to the 1943 Tarrawingee fire. To a person, they remembered the day of the disaster as if it was yesterday. Unexpectedly, critical issues that are often identified as important to survivors in the first few years following a disaster—such as drug and alcohol abuse, temporary housing and frustration with the bureaucracy associated with rebuilding—were only briefly mentioned, if at all, by participants. In the long-term, what stayed with survivors were the effects of the experience on themselves, their family and community. Their reflections and insights shaped by gendered expectations, over a decade or over half a century, informs the understanding of resilience and what helps and hinders it. Researchers, policymakers and responders alike can benefit from these insights to improve all stages of emergency and disaster management.