| Recent social-science literature has identified women as having disproportionate vulnerability to natural hazards and disasters. This is caused by a number of intersecting inequalities including wage disparity, unequal care-giving responsibilities, and unequal political power and access to resources. Despite the evidence of disproportionate vulnerability, the literature suggests that planning and mitigation efforts often disregard gender's influence on the disaster experience. Through qualitative coding and analysis of three Rhode Island hazard mitigation plans as well as interviews with authors of the plans, this study found that predisaster mitigation plans showed no awareness of women's disproportionate vulnerability to hazards. Further the plans authors' failed to identify women as a vulnerable population group and do not recognize vulnerable populations as an audience for the plans. |
