Immoral hazard: The gender inequality of risk

By Yannick Glemarec and Jemilah Mahmood

Whilst the international media reported that over 800 people died in Haiti due to the impact of the recent Hurricane Matthew, a gender breakdown was not given even though your chances of surviving a natural disaster often depends on your sex. This inequality of risk is increasingly important in a world of more frequent and bigger disasters and crises, with almost 100 million people affected by 346 disasters in 2015 alone. And climate change drives these numbers ever higher.

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However, when given the chance, women prove time and again that they can be in the front line of preparing for and responding to disaster, whether in the home, the community or at the highest levels of government, if only they are afforded the opportunity. And yet still our disaster planning and response has not caught up with this basic reality.

We know the main reasons for this.