Paper short abstract:

The paper introduces 'feminisation of responsibility in community recovery' and troubles the uncritical assumptions around women's participation in disaster reconstruction. It argues that disaster justice needs the lens of Care in order to address ambient gender injustices in disaster contexts.

Paper long abstract:

Post-disaster interventions have gradually paid attention to fostering women’s participation in processes of rebuilding in recent years. The explicit targeting of women in reconstruction initiatives has been regarded as a measure to ‘transform’ gender roles/relations and to fulfil broader disaster justice aims of providing access to political spaces and resources, and recognition. In the Philippines, women are increasingly acknowledged for their roles in helping their families and communities ‘bounce back’ from disasters thereby paving the way to their greater participation in disaster recovery. This paper, however, troubles the assumptions underpinning the uncritical celebration of women’s participation in community recovery – anchored on constructions of female altruism and women’s care responsibilities – and draws attention to how the targeting and mobilisation of women in times of disaster might inadvertently exacerbate gender inequalities and proliferate injustice. The paper presents a qualitative case study of community recovery in post-Yolanda Tacloban City, Philippines. Using the concept of feminisation of responsibility, it illuminates how the instrumentalisation of women’s participation and care-based practices in service of aspirations for ‘resilient recovery’ come at a cost – depletion of women’s time, energy, and emotions. Engaging with the concept of disaster justice, the paper argues that for gender justice goals to be attained in contexts of recovery, we need to address the containment of care as women’s responsibility. More importantly, it contends that disaster justice frameworks need to embody ethics of care if it is to address the ambient forms of injustices that (re)produce gendered disaster vulnerabilities.