Gender and Emergency Management Guidelines

Gender issues are known to compound the damaging effects of disaster on survivors. Increasing understanding of the relationship between gender and disaster will improve the health and wellbeing of both women and men affected by disaster across Australia.

The Gender and Emergency Management (GEM) Guidelines were developed collaboratively as part of the 2016 All on Board project. The project aimed to reduce the compounding effects of gender on disaster impact through the development of national gender and emergency guidelines to fill a gap in Australian knowledge, policy and practice.

The benefits of the project are far-reaching and include:

A shared and improved understanding of the need for the guidelines, and the critical importance of policies and practice that incorporate a gender lens more broadly

A shared and improved understanding of the specific issues (social, structural, psychological, financial, interpersonal, and physical) relating to gender and disaster – and a capacity, informed by clear guidelines, to respond to these issues

Changed practices by key emergency management organisations and communities to help identify, prevent and respond to gender-based disaster impacts

New knowledge within the emergency sector of how to action the guidelines and gain support for subsequent changed policies and practices

Improved planning, response and recovery for both men and women in the midst and aftermath of disaster.

The project aimed to achieve a truly national outcome, through consultation with representatives from each Australian state and territory. The collaborative approach ensured the guidelines were inclusive of contexts and experiences across Australia, and fostered a sense of shared ownership and responsibility.

The guidelines are evidence-based and informed by both national and international research and experience. They align to other gender-related policy and program developments including the Sendai Framework.

All on Board

Funded through the National Emergency Management Project (NEMP), the All on Board initiative sought to address the growing interest in the impact of gender on emergency management and the recognised need for gender to be incorporated into national guidelines.

In 2016, the project consulted with over 350 emergency management personnel across Australia. In addition to the GEM Guidelines, the project produced a companion checklist and a literature review. All on Board was externally peer-reviewed and evaluated.

Overview of the literature

There is a consensus in disaster studies that disasters have a differential impact on men and women (see for example, Enarson, 2012; Enarson & Haworth-Brockman, 2008; Eriksen, 2013; Gender & Disaster Network, 2005). Internationally, gendered considerations are central to disaster response in developing countries, yet this is not reflected in the majority of the emergency management guidelines at both national and state levels in Australia, nor in other developed countries (Hazeleger, 2013; Department of Police and Emergency Management, 2013; Emergency Management Victoria, 2015; Australian Emergency Management Institute, 2011). Gendered disaster research in Australia, principally since the Black Saturday bushfires, finds that a lack of attention to gendered issues contributes to poor recovery and weakened resilience (Parkinson, 2012, 2015; Parkinson & Zara, 2016; Zara & Parkinson, 2013, Zara, et al., 2016). Identified issues include increased violence against women in disasters’ aftermath; community aggression; increased harmful behaviours by men; increased drug and alcohol abuse; suicide and mental health issues.

For men, management of recovery and reconstruction after Black Saturday overlooked local men, and employment issues became disruptive. Psychological assistance was not tailored for the gendered expectations of men and this led to men avoiding the help that was offered, or to men being penalised in the workplace for seeking help. This research also showed that gendered expectations of women as primary carers of children led to some women forgoing their professional careers. Women reported having no choice to return to work in the absence of men taking on shared responsibility, and in the absence of early reestablishment of formal child care. Women’s strengths in community leadership and knowledge, too, were frequently overlooked by those leading disaster recovery and reconstruction.

The lack of female leadership in the emergency management sector is equally problematic, leading to a lack of awareness of the impact of such issues. For example, discrimination against women in the sector has attracted attention and must be addressed within Emergency Service Organisations (ESOs) (Allison, 2014; Parkinson, Duncan & Hedger, 2015; VHREOC,2015; see also the Victorian Government Response to Fire Services Review, 2016). Gender and emergency management guidelines would address the lack of knowledge amongst leaders of the relevance and critical importance of attention to gendered issues (Council of Australian Governments, 2012).

References

Allison M 2014, Independent review of an incident involving Queensland Fire and Rescue Service employees, 19 December 2014.

Australian Emergency Management Institute (AEMI) 2011, Community Recovery Handbook 2.* Canberra: AEMI.

*The Community Recovery Handbook was reviewed and republished in 2018 by the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR). Access the current edition

Council of Australian Governments 2012, National Strategy for Disaster Resilience: A Companion Booklet. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.

Department of Police and Emergency Management 2013, Tasmanian Emergency Management Plan. Hobart, Tasmania: Government of Tasmania.

Emergency Management Victoria (EMV) 2015. Emergency Management Manual Victoria: State Emergency Relief and Recovery Plan Part 4. Melbourne: EMV.

Enarson E 2002, Working with Women at Risk: Practical Guidelines for Assessing Local Disaster Risk. Florida: International Hurricane Center, Florida International University.

Enarson E 2012. Women confronting natural disaster: From vulnerability to resilience. Boulder, Colarado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.

Enarson E 2009. Prairie Women Prepared for Disaster: An emergency planning guide for women’s community organizations. Winnipeg, Manitoba: Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence.

Enarson E & Haworth-Brockman M 2008. Gender Mainstreaming In Emergency Management: Opportunities for Building Community Resilience in Canada. Ottawa, Canada: Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response, Public Health Agency of Canada.

Eriksen C 2013, ‘Gendered Risk Engagement: Challenging the Embedded Vulnerability, Social Norms and Power Relations in Conventional Australian Bushfire Education’, Geographical Research, vol. 52, issue 1, pp. 23-33.

Gender and Disaster Network 2005, Gender Equality in Disasters: Six Principles for Engendered Relief and Reconstruction. London: Gender and Disaster Network.

Hazeleger T 2013, ‘Gender and disaster recovery: strategic issues and action in Australia,’ Australian Journal of Emergency Management, vol. 28, issue 2, pp. 40-47.

Parkinson D 2012, The Way He Tells It – Vol. 1 Relationships After Black Saturday. Wangaratta: Women’s Health Goulburn North East.

Parkinson D 2015, Women’s experience of violence in the aftermath of the Black Saturday bushfires. A Thesis Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Clayton: School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University.

Parkinson D, Duncan A & Hedger E 2015, Women in Fire and Emergency Leadership Roles: How can we improve the balance? A Research Report commissioned by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), Victoria. Melbourne: DELWP.

Parkinson D & Zara C 2016, Men Reveal the Emotional and Personal Costs of the Black Saturday Bushfires in Victoria, Australia. In Enarson E & Pease B (eds.), Men, Masculinities and Disaster: Revisiting the Gendered Terrain of Disaster. London: Routledge.

Victorian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission 2015, Independent review into sex discrimination and sexual harassment, including predatory behaviour, in Victoria Police: Phase One Report - Dec 2015. Carlton, Victoria: VHREOC.

Zara C, Parkinson D, Duncan A & Joyce K 2016, ‘Men and disaster: Men’s experiences of the Black Saturday bushfires and the aftermath’, Australian Journal of Emergency Management, vol. 31, issue 3, pp. 40-48.