Women and children last: An essay on sex discrimination in disasters

Little attention has been given to differential survival between the sexes in disasters. Discussions concerned with victimization in natural disasters have focused primarily in terms of class. In this article an analysis of victimization in terms of sex and the sporadic evidence for the marked differential in morbidity and mortality of the two sexes found in many disaster situations is presented. Disaster victims are presented as event victims (those killed or injured by a catastrophe) and context victims (those who die as a result of the disaster which follows the catastrophe). In context victims sex differences in morbidity are not simply the result of the way gender dictates environment but will also result from the way it dictates choices during the disaster. Overall the most important element of sex discrimination in disasters relates to the nutritional vulnerability of female children evidenced in the higher rates of malnutrition observed among girls in recent famines. This could be caused by the victimization of girls due to sex discrimination intrinsic in most societies. Discrimination against girls is evident from the systematic collection of statistics resulting to a clearer awareness of the true nature of female vulnerability. Implications for this could do much to improve the efficacy with which malnutrition could be detected cured or even prevented.