Hidden Patriarchy and Empowerment of Women in Disaster: A Case Study of Recovery, Miyagi Japan
The focus of this presentation is not only on the disaster, as it also seeks to draw on academic debates on hidden patriarchy and women’s empowerment and to problematize current disaster thinking and policies.
Tendo and colleagues (2021) created a new academic field called “Disaster and Women’s Studies” prompted by the Great East Japan Earthquake, by tracing back through the research and practices of civic groups that put women in the center. It is an academic field, made up of practical and interdisciplinary expertise that draw from the realities on the ground involving women and disasters.
Disasters do not affect people equally. The inequitable gender order that pervades social, economic, and political systems is revealed in the division of labor by gender roles in running evacuation centers; the emphasis on women’s household responsibilities; the uneven distribution of care responsibilities.
In this presentation, we focus on care and dignity, and invisible gender norms, then show a theoretical model of grassroots women’s empowerment. We also examine a case study of recovery based on empirical research in Miyagi: a questionnaire survey of women who experienced disaster 2011, and in-depth interview cases of local women leaders.
Women are often constructed as a vulnerable group, however, our research findings show that women’s were able to empower themselves. This was driven by our belief in the need to identify the various issues and background factors that women face whenever disasters occur, and to develop women’s studies as an academic and theoretical framework and a tangible, practical tool to empower women to solve these issues.