Women's Leadership after the Eruption of the Volcano on La Palma.

Over the past decade, international guidelines on disaster risk management have recommended the inclusion of women as a means of enhancing the resilience of communities in the event of a catastrophic occurrence (UNDRR & UN Women, 2022). Previous research indicates that the disaster context can facilitate empowerment and the emergence of both male and female leadership (Moreno & Shaw, 2018; Fernandez et al., 2023). This communication, which forms part of an empirical research project conducted between 2022 and 2024, analyses the female leadership that emerged during the volcanic eruption of La Palma (Spain) in 2021. In order to collect the necessary information, in-depth interviews were conducted with women leaders in La Palma.

The preliminary results suggest that women are mobilising in order to secure spaces for participation and are even promoting the formation of new collective organisations in the post-emergency period. These actions may be perceived as novel experiences, yet they do not necessarily signify a transformation in gender relations. The primary impediments they encounter originate from the very institutions tasked with disaster risk management. Furthermore, the family and domestic space can also act as a hindrance and create barriers to women's leadership (Vergara & Miranda, 2022). Disasters can be seen as a further system of oppression against women. Despite the inclusive discourse of disaster risk reduction policies, women's actions can be understood as acts of everyday resistance that may later lead to political participation. In contrast to more developmentalist approaches, where women's leadership is seen as a means of fostering resilience and enabling entrepreneurship, women remain confined to androcentric margins that impact on the emergency, recovery and reconstruction process, but are not necessarily transformative or politicised.