New Orleans Affirmative- 7ws strategy Page


Disaster experiences are also gendered; poor households headed by women suffered the most



Download 1.03 Mb.
Page7/24
Date18.10.2016
Size1.03 Mb.
#1191
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   ...   24

Women



Disaster experiences are also gendered; poor households headed by women suffered the most.

Jenkins et al. 11 Gender Differences in Self-Reported Evacuation Experiences Analysis of the City Assisted Evacuation Program During Hurricane Gustav Pamela Jenkins, John L. Renne, and John Kiefer, University of New Orleans, Louisiana http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/conf/cp46v2.pdf
Findings Overall, there were significant differences by gender for those who reported they were “very dissatisfied” with CAEP as a whole. While almost three-quarters of the participants were satisfied with the CAEP, women were significantly more likely to report they were very dissatisfied than men. Women Less Likely to Own a Vehicle and Use It to Self-Evacuate When asked the question about how they evacuated from the city, significant differences by gender emerged for those who had registered for but did not use CAEP. While almost half the CAEP participants surveyed reported they did not own a vehicle, more than one-quarter of the males who registered for but did not use CAEP during Hurricane Gustav reported they owned their own vehicle and were able to use it to self-evacuate. Only 16.5% of women owned a vehicle and were able to self-evacuate. This indicates that men had access to substantially more transportation resources than did women. For the most part, when CAEP-registered respondents did not use the city evacuation, they used their networks of family and friends. They left with their daughters, brothers, grandsons, or neighbors. Primarily, residents left in vehicles, but a small number reported flying out of New Orleans. Most of the women who registered but did not use CAEP reported that they evacuated by bus or got a ride with a friend or relative. This suggests that women were far less likely to have the means to self-evacuate, and hence were significantly more vulnerable in an evacuation due to their lack of reliable transportation. Finances More Likely to Be a Barrier to Evacuation for Women A wide variety of barriers to evacuation were reported by those who registered for CAEP. Barriers seemed to affect all participants regardless of gender, yet women were significantly overrepresented in reporting that a lack of finances served as a barrier to evacuation. While on its surface this may seem to point to a need to better educate evacuees that there are no costs for CAEP evacuation— that is, transportation, meals, and shelter are provided by the government—in reality, some of those surveyed reported that this was not the case. Most notably, several reported that there was no food at one shelter, and they had to “go to McDonalds.” Although household-head status was not specifically asked of respondents in this survey, lack of adequate finances may have emerged as a significant barrier for women due to the much higher number of female heads of households in vulnerable communities. Sheltering Issues More Likely to Be Reported by Women Shelter experiences were mostly negative and were reported at significantly higher numbers by women. Participant comments indicated that many felt they were negatively stereotyped by shelter personnel. Many residents, particularly the elderly (significantly higher representation by women) and mothers with small children, felt unsafe. While some shelters made special provisions for segregating older evacuees, most did not. Women’s roles as caregivers may certainly have influenced their experience in the shelter; they were not only responsible for their own safety, but the safety of others. Also, shelters often take over the traditional roles of women, so women may be concerned about how these tasks are carried out. Men Needing Evacuation Assistance More Likely to Be Enrolled in CAEP by a Family Member There were significant differences by gender for those who were enrolled in CAEP by a family member. While three-quarters of the participants enrolled in CAEP by calling 311 themselves, men were 2.5 times more likely to be enrolled by a family member than women. Women were far more likely to have either enrolled themselves, or enrolled through a variety of organizations that included volunteers of America, dialysis centers, senior citizen groups, Housing and Urban Development, veterans Administration Hospital ARC, and home health assistance. Referral by outside groups seems to be an important avenue, especially for women. The findings suggest that men are more likely to have a local support system than women, making the latter more vulnerable during disasters. Press reports indicated that there were long delays in registering for CAEP in the days and hours before Hurricane Gustav made landfall. Telephone lines were overwhelmed. Yet the program had been in effect for several years before Gustav. Data showed that only 7% registered for CAEP through external organizations. in a community made up of largely female-headed households, these women were often faced with CAEP enrollment challenges that may have been overwhelming. The competing duties of managing and caring for a household while facing the potential dangers of an impending disaster certainly made opportunities for enrollment in CAEP difficult. As the data indicated, women were more likely to have self-enrolled or to have enrolled through a civic organization. This suggests an opportunity for the city to work with organizations such as volunteers of America, dialysis centers, senior citizens groups, AARP, hospitals, pharmacies, and others well in advance of hurricane season to identify and register vulnerable citizens.
Disasters affect poor, children, and women the most

Redlener et al. 08 [Irwin Redlener, md, Professor of Clinical Public Health, Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health David m. Abramson, PHD mph, Associate Research Scientist, Director of Research, National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Richard Garfield, RN DRPH Professor of Clinical International Nursing, Columbia University Mailman School of Nursing] Lessons from katrina: what went wrong, what was learned, who’s most vulnerable http://www.cardozolawandgender.com/uploads/2/7/7/6/2776881/13-4_redlener.pdf
Inasmuch as social advantage has often provided a buffer to the consequences of natural disasters, social vulnerability has left other populations precariously exposed. In the Child and Family Health Studies led by David Abramson and Richard Garfield 5 , we interviewed members of 1,248 randomly sampled displaced or impacted households in Louisiana and Mississippi, post-Katrina. The study confirmed domestically what many other international disaster studies have found as well, the presence of a “poverty penalty” in which those with the least often suffer the most. The working class and working poor along the Gulf were particularly vulnerable to the economic consequences of the hurricane. Among Mississippi households with a salaried wage-earner prior to the hurricane, the working poor were two and a half times as likely to be jobless one year after the hurricane as were middle-class households. The impact on children of the social disruption and continued chaos and uncertainty has been devastating as well. Half of the parents and caregivers reported that the children in their homes had experienced emotional or behavioral problems since the hurricane, and the incidence of clinically-diagnosed depression and anxiety among children quadrupled since the hurricane. Nearly two-thirds of the women caregivers reported mental health scores consistent with severe mental health disability and stress. The hallmark of such a mega-disaster as Hurricane Katrina is that it shreds the social networks and institutions, which provide a modicum of stability and coherence in people’s lives. Women are particularly vulnerable when these social institutions deteriorate, particularly in their role as caregivers. Nearly forty percent of children in Mississippi had either not completed their school year or had missed a significant amount of class time. Combined with unsafe housing and neighborhoods, and unreliable systems of criminal justice and police protection, women often find themselves in a volatile home environment—the children are at home, disengaged from school; their spouse or partner is unemployed, with little economic opportunity available; their material possessions have mostly been destroyed; and they are living in extremely close quarters—often four or five family members in a 250 square foot trailer, for over a year, with no certain housing solution in sight. Many respondents spoke to us of the enormous strain on personal relationships, and it is not surprising that mental health disability is so endemic.
Women disproportionately suffer from natural disasters

Kiefer, Renne, and Jenkins 2011 (Dr. Kiefer is Associate Professor and Director, MPA Program in the Department of Political Science at the University of New Orleans John L. Renne is an Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the University of New Orleans Transportation Center in the College of Urban and Public Affairs at the University of New Orleans. He has expertise in the areas of transportation and land use planning, particularly in transit-oriented development PhD in Urban Planning and Policy Development Major Fields: Transportation and Land Use Planning Master of Urban and Regional Planning (Valedictorian)) Concentration: Economic Development Bachelor of Environmental Design (with Honors) Major: Urban Planning and Design Minor: Economics Pamela Jenkins Professor Ph.D. Louisiana State “Gender Differences in Self-Reported Evacuation Experiences: An Analysis of the City-Assisted Evacuation Program During Hurricane Gustav,” Research in Women’s Issues in Transportation, Transportation Research Board, forthcoming 2011. Herm
No plan and implementation for evacuating New Orleans or any urban area will be perfect. in the four years after Hurricane Katrina, the city adopted a process of continued improvement in evacuation planning. However, the survey indicated that there are still needs that must be addressed to ensure a more complete evacuation of the city’s most vulnerable citizens. The findings suggest that there are some significant differences in evacuation experiences based on gender. Women have significantly less access to a reliable vehicle for self-evacuation, making them far more dependent on a viable city-assisted evacuation program. Women are also significantly more likely to be dependent upon nonfamily entities for their enrollment in CAEP, relying on various public service agencies. The overrepresentation of female heads of households in vulnerable communities makes lack of adequate finances a significant barrier to evacuation. it also must be recognized that lack of trust remains a barrier to evacuation. New Orleans is not unique among American cities in this distrust. Yet an overrepresentation of female heads of households suggests that women from the most vulnerable communities may be those most likely to consistently engage with city bureaucrats. Trust in government requires the involvement of all the city’s agencies, not just the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Street-level bureaucrats within the police department, social services, and other agencies often set the tone for the climate in the community. The authors suggest immediate implementation of proactive, two-way communication between citizens and government agencies to achieve a safe environment with regard to disasters.



Download 1.03 Mb.

Share with your friends:
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   ...   24




The database is protected by copyright ©ininet.org 2024
send message

    Main page