Gender Impact Analysis in Disaster Policy (Home Affairs Department)

FORE Australia Reporter: Yuki Wang, Jemma Rule, Erin Theodore and Esther Ellwood

Publish Date: 06/9/2024

Problem Identification: 

The Department of Home Affairs may not have the appropriate mechanisms to address gender-related vulnerabilities in its disaster policies. 

In 2023, the Equality Rights Alliance (ERA) highlighted the need to identify and eliminate current gender barriers in crisis management, and noted their concern about federal disaster response policy, ‘consistently lack[ing] a gender analysis’.

This means that federal disaster policy responses may be potentially exacerbating, or not adequately addressing, gender-related impacts of disasters.

Context: 

Solution Identification: 

Advice: 

Download the 1-page policy brief PDF here:

Gender Impact Analysis in disaster policies (Home Affairs Department)

.pdf

Download PDF • 75KB

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Public Support:

1.  Equality Rights Alliance - https://www.equalityrightsalliance.org.au/publications/era-submission-alternative-commonwealth-capabilities-for-crisis-response-discussion-paper/ 

2. Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia - https://wela.org.au/gender-climate-report/ 

Where to go to learn more: 

1. Oxfam Australia, A GUIDE TO GENDER IMPACT ASSESSMENT FOR THE EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRIES (2017), <https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/a-guide-to-gender-impact-assessment-for-the-extractive-industries-620782/>.

2. Pascoe Leahy, Carla, Women are 14 times more likely to die in a climate disaster than men. It’s just one way climate change is gendered (2024), <https://theconversation.com/women-are-14-times-more-likely-to-die-in-a-climate-disaster-than-men-its-just-one-way-climate-change-is-gendered-230295>. 

Lived Experience: 

Rebecca is a single mum in a rural town that was recently impacted by flooding. Governmental disaster response relief has started to be rolled out, but Rebecca worries that even with government aid, she won’t be able to stay in her community and rebuild her home. She knows that women are more likely to have fewer resources for recovery than men, and her sole income hindered her preparation efforts. As such, she doesn’t have shelf-stable foods or menstrual products and is concerned that supermarket stocks will not be refreshed for sometime due to the floods. Rebecca is also aware that she is far more likely to die in a disaster than a man, and she’s deeply worried about who will look after her family if such a thing happens. Rebuilding efforts are underway, and she is already feeling excluded from community decisions, despite her previous involvement and connections in her rural town. Rebecca feels invisible and has heightened anxiety about being left behind in response efforts. Due to these stress factors, she is seriously considering leaving her tight-knit community. 

Reference list: 

Alston, Margaret and Whittenbury, Kerri, Does climatic crisis in Australia’s food bowl create a basis for change in agricultural gender relations? (2012), <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-012-9382-x>, accessed 15 July 2024.

Department of Home Affairs and National Emergency Management Agency, Alternative Commonwealth Capabilities for Crisis Response Discussion Paper – August 2023 (2023), <https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/reports-and-pubs/files/alternative-clth-capabilities-crisis-response.pdf>, accessed 9 July 2024.

Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Including Gender: An APS Guide to Gender Analysis and Gender Impact Assessment (2024), <https://www.pmc.gov.au/resources/including-gender-aps-guide-gender-analysis-and-gender-impact-assessment/part-4-gender/41>, accessed 9 July 2024.

Equality Rights Alliance, Submission of the Equality Rights Alliance to the Department of Home Affairs in response to the Alternative Commonwealth Capabilities for Crisis Response discussion paper (2023), <https://www.equalityrightsalliance.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/20230923-Home-Affairs-Alt-Cth-Capabilities-Climate-Change-Response-Submission.pdf>, accessed 10 July 2024.

Parkinson, Debra et al., The National GEM Guideline (2023), <https://genderanddisaster.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/1_GEM-Guidelines-December-2023.pdf>, accessed 9 July 2023.

Parkinson, Debra, Women’s experience of violence in the aftermath of the Black Saturday bushfires (2014), <https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/thesis/Women_s_experience_of_violence_in_the_aftermath_of_the_Black_Saturday_bushfires/4705114>, accessed 15 July 2024. 

Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia (WELA), Gender, Climate and Environmental Justice in Australia (2024), <https://wela.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Full-report-Gender-Climate-and-Environmental-Justice-in-Australia-WELA.pdf>, accessed 9 July 2024.

Women’s Health East, Women and Climate Change Fact Sheet (2018), <https://whe.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Women-and-Climate-Change-Fact-Sheet_20-03-18.pdf>, accessed 9 July 2024.

UNDRR, Gender-Responsive Disaster Risk Reduction (2022), <https://www.undrr.org/sites/default/files/2022-03/Policy%20brief_Gender-responsive%20disaster%20risk%20reduction.pdf>, accessed 9 July 2024.

United Nations, Gender Equality | United Nations (2020), <https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/gender-equality>, accessed 10 July 2024.

Conflict of interest / acknowledgment statement: 

N/A.