Feminist Looking Glass

About two weeks have passed since Haiti’s devastating earthquake. The world has continued to deal with the aftermath, in its physical, emotional, environmental and financial forms. Undoubtedly, there are numerous important factors to take into consideration when assessing the most effective ways to give and disseminate aid. There are political, historical, health, and humanitarian frameworks to analyze. Among these necessary ‘lenses’ is a focus on gender and women’s advocacy.

Women often have unique issues that must be addressed in times of war, disease, famine, or natural disasters. The absence of order leave women vulnerable to rape and sexual assault, for instance. In war, rape can be a weapon; in disaster it can be a devastating side effect. Women’s health is also at risk in unique ways, particularly for those women who are pregnant or have recently given birth. An article I found today described how hundreds of women have given birth since the earthquake in Haiti, among the rubble, with no medicine, doctors, or sanitary equipment. According to a report from Doctors Without Borders, Haiti already had the highest maternal mortality rate in the Western hemisphere, prior to the earthquake. And furthermore, accumulated garbage and unsanitary drinking water will leave mothers and infants susceptible to disease and infection.

Aid workers have also been concerned, and rightfully so, that relief is not reaching women– at least not in the numbers that it is reaching men. This is another common problem in post-disaster aid work. As one human rights organization explains:

[Women] are often overlooked in large-scale aid operations. In the chaos that follows disasters, aid too often reaches those who yell the loudest or push their way to the front of the line. When aid is distributed through the “head of household” approach, women-headed families may not even be recognized, and women within male-headed families may be marginalized when aid is controlled by male relatives.

It sounds reasonable, sure– and yet efforts to bring women to the forefront of crisis relief and recovery are frequently met with some knee-jerk opposition. “Men’s rights groups” have been offended at the implication that women may need particular attention. In this blog, the author mocks the demand for women’s “hygiene supplies,” missing the point that “hygiene supplies” refers to ‘feminine products,’ like tampons, pads, birth control, etc.  In this article from Men’s News Daily, the author laments what he believes is anti-men discrimination from women’s organzations. What he, like many men’s rights advocates, fails to understand is that the standard scripted response for disaster relief is already built around men. And it’s not that women’s groups want to take this aid away– it’s that they recommend that women get additional aid they have previously lacked, an ommission that has historically taken its toll on individuals and communities as a whole.

Advocating for a special focus on women and their babies should not be interpreted as a slight to men– but rather, an intelligent and thoughtful tailoring of aid that can have the greatest effect on men and women alike.

Filed under: Health, International, Violence Tagged: | haiti, women, women's health