As reported by The Guardian, recent studies have revealed an alarming increase in domestic violence against women following many natural disasters, prompting activists to speak out about prevention and protection.
A report by the Australian Women’s Environmental Leadership Institute documents some dire facts: women are “14 times more likely to be killed in a disaster” and “account for 80 per cent of people displaced by extreme weather events.”
Reported disasters included droughts, floods, and lockdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. As The Guardian explained, these crises have caused a “dramatic increase in domestic violence.” For women, communication with support services has been chaotic (caseworkers relying on “tiny antennas attached to generators in their cars”) or completely unavailable; one worker described the situation as “like a war zone.”
In the aftermath of a crisis, “violence against women often escalates as traditional gender roles tend to become more deeply ingrained,” The Guardian noted in a summary of the WELA report. While men take part in firefighting, construction and other clean-up tasks that are seen as “heroic,” women often “shoulder a greater burden of care work.”
This disparity may contribute to communities condoning violence: research has shown that when perpetrators “were men who were also rescue workers, there was a sense that they should be forgiven,” paramedic Steve O’Malley told The Guardian.
According to statistics released by the National Domestic Violence Hotline, more than 12 million people are victims of intimate partner violence each year in the U.S. A significant percentage of these victims (about 80% from 1994 to 2010) are women.
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Carla Pascoe-Leahy, research manager at WELA, told the Guardian that women caught up in disasters are “less safe and have fewer resources to rely on”.
These figures are disturbing in themselves, but even more so when we see the correlation with natural disasters, especially in an era of extreme weather caused by toxic pollution.
According to The Guardian, to spread awareness about how disasters affect women, emergency workers like O’Malley are training first responders to be gender-sensitive during crisis responses, and Pascoe-Leahy wants to inspire political action.
WELA stressed that women bring “much-needed leadership and perspective” to the climate change discussion, adding that efforts toward clean energy, improved community infrastructure, green business practices and more often result in “better environmental outcomes” when women take the lead.
The WELA report states that “care-based solutions that care for people and the planet” are key to success.
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