Women and Environmental Justice
Environmental Justice & WomenIn this section of our website, Women's Health Goulburn North East and Women's Health In the North collaboratively:
pose questions and challenges
invite your comment, your art, your poetry
proclaim women's experiences
expound our research and our stance
What do we mean by 'Environmental Justice'?
- The term 'Environmental Justice' refers to the just distribution of environmental risk and benefits amongst the population and the right of all to meaningful participation in environmental decision-making. (http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/)
- Women are greatly under-represented in environmental decision making, and the perspective women can bring to such processes is under-recognised and under-utilised.
- We agree with the world's leading scientists that climate change is one of the most urgent issues of the 21st century. Women may be particularly susceptible to climate change and disasters, yet a gendered perspective is largely absent from environmental research, policy, planning and implementation.
- The environmental justice model offers a useful framework for the identification and reduction of environmental risk to women and men, as it offers access to a body of knowledge established over decades.
- As stated by Women for Climate Justice, 'There will be no climate justice without gender justice'.
Identifying the Hidden Disaster: The First Australian Conference on Natural Disasters and Family Violence
9 March 2012 - Melbourne - (Sponsored by the Nikolaus Institute and VicHealth)
This Australia-first conference was held in Melbourne on Friday, 9 March 2012 and opened by the Deputy Commissioner of Victoria Police, Tim Cartwright. Keynote speakers were Elaine Enarson, leading international researcher on gender and disaster; Lois Herbert, Manager of the Battered Women's Refuge in Christchurch; and Megan Sety from the Australian Domestic & Family Violence Clearinghouse. A highlight of the Conference was the first hand and heartrending accounts from two women whose relationships suffered in the aftermath of Black Saturday.
The Conference provided a perfect forum for the launch of the first Australian research to examine the impact on relationships after a natural disaster, The Way He Tells It, from Women's Health Goulburn North East. Issues raised in this research were considered by the twelve key players in disaster management in a Hypothetical. The day concluded with five Action Planning Workshops to give delegates the opportunity to discuss the implications of the conference learnings and identify achievable actions.
It is possible to view films of the Deputy Commissioner Tim Cartwright, Elaine Enarson and other keynote presenters on the Conference Proceedings website. The hypothetical is available for viewing, as well as most of the presenters’ power points, papers and transcripts.
Visit the Conference Proceedings page for full details.
Does violence against women increase after a disaster?
The Way He Tells It: Relationships after Black Saturday
Two years of collecting and analysing accounts from women and workers affected by Black Saturday has yielded complex and disturbing findings. Social services workers – including police, domestic violence workers, counsellors and recovery workers – shared their knowledge and insight into the affect of the disaster on personal and community relationships. Women themselves have spoken of their experiences of post bushfire violence.
A striking feature of this research is what is missing. No sound data collection existed to identify and record incidents of family violence and women’s traditional reluctance to report violence against them was exacerbated in the aftermath of Black Saturday. Retracted accounts of violence and responses to it indicate that much remains hidden, as women continue to fear repercussions from both the community and violent partners
Background:
In disasters and their aftermath, women are affected differently and in many cases more severely than men. Increased violence against women is a documented characteristic of the post-disaster period. Where researchers have noted this link, they have attributed the increase to heightened stress, alcohol abuse and lapses in constraints to behaviour offered by legal and societal expectations.
Although Australians have a one in six estimated lifetime exposure to natural disaster, there appears to be little research into the gendered impacts of disaster and no published research to date on the link between disaster and violence against women in this country. It seems that the long-standing taboo in relation to domestic violence is taken to a new level where perpetrators may have been ‘heroes’ in the fires, where stress levels are high and where men are often unemployed and sometimes suicidal. The ever-present willingness to overlook violence against women appears to be exacerbated in post-disaster circumstances where the resources of support services are over-burdened with primary and fire-related needs.
Download - The Way He Tells It
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Family Violence and Disaster Postcard - You can help in 4 steps
 ’She dances on the wind’ by Ona Henderson (03) 9712 0393 |
disaster is no excuse for family violence
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Media
Bush Telegraph
Natural disasters increase violence against women
By Keiren McLeonard
Thursday, 8 March 2012
Diamond Valley Leader
SPECIAL REPORT: Silent scars of bushfire women
7 Mar 12 @ 05:00am by Raelene Wilson
| Women & Disaster: | ||||
| Snapshot 1 Women and Disaster Download FileSize 76KB Relationship violence is a taboo subject. It’s always been hard for women to report, but this is taken to a new level after a disaster. |
Snapshot 2 Gender in Disaster Download FileSize 71KB The relevance of gender in disaster risk. There are different vulnerabilities in disaster depending on gender. |
Snapshot 3 The Hidden Disaster Download FileSize 98KB Women’s experiences of the Victorian Black Saturday bushfires were researched. These are the findings regarding family violence – in a nutshell. |
Snapshot 4 Checklists Download FileSize 82KB Checklists to keep women and children safe for: Disaster prevention, response & recovery services |
What can we do?Handout Size 272KB Full ReferencesSize 138KB |
Presentation to emergency services workers, government employees, health professionals and community members in Hume region
March 5 and 6, 2012
Download Presentation
File Size 229KB
Beating the Flames Women escaping and surviving Black Saturday
The accounts of how women responded and were affected during and after the Black Saturday fires We invite you to share your story. Submit your story of
Black Saturday or the days, weeks and even
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On Black Saturday many women were left alone, often with children, to escape or fight the sudden fires.Submit your StoryWe invite you to share your story. Submit your story of Black Saturday or the days, weeks and even years that followed. *Please Note Stories submitted will be posted to |
Submit your ArtWe invite you to share your your art. Submit your images of art you have created around the events of Black Saturday. *Please Note Art submitted will be posted to |
Submit your PoemWe invite you to share your poetry. Submit your poems that capture the essence the events of Black Saturday. *Please Note Poems submitted will be posted to |
View Submitted Stories |
View Submitted Art |
View Submitted Poetry |
Black Saturday ArtVisual art has been a way to express both the horror and grief of Black Saturday and the cautious joy in survival and renewal.
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Women, disaster and violence
It appears that the collective imagination that women and children come first in a disaster is a myth... Read the international literature review Women, Disaster and Violence
For a summary, see 'Women and Disaster' article in the Australian Women's Health Network February 2011 newsletter.
WHIN's position statement
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A Numbers Game: Lack of gendered data impedes prevention of disaster-related family violence
The Health Promotion Journal of Australia will publish in its forthcoming edition, an article co-written by staff at Women's Health In the North and Women's Health Goulburn North East. 'A Numbers Game' addresses the lack of a systematic approach to collecting family violence data after Black Saturday. Its premise is that health promotion theory and service planning demand a sound evidence base for interventions. In the absence of this, family violence following disasters will continue to be overlooked in the face of 'urgent' needs. |
Women and Environmental Justice: a literature review
The Environmental Justice movement works for the fair distribution of the burdens brought by climate change. Its focus is mainly on race and socioeconomic class, yet we believe that a gendered analysis of environmental issues is central to achieving justice. This gendered focus will ensure that women and girls are not disproportionately affected by the effects of devastating environmental problems such as climate change and that any needs they have that are different to those of men will be adequately addressed. Importantly, women must be involved at all levels of addressing environmental issues, including climate-change induced disasters.
In order to ascertain the effects that climate change and other environmental issues are having on women and girls in Melbourne's northern region, this wide-ranging literature review addresses a number of topics that relate to women and environmental justice, including economic participation; vulnerability to natural disasters and heatwaves; mental health; rural women; the elderly, children and disabled; and leadership.
Our research has shown that women are unduly affected by environmental problems for three main reasons: because they are generally poorer than men, because of the social construction of womanhood and because of their longer life spans. The interaction of these factors with forms of discrimination such as sexism, racism and ageism result in social conditions that put women at risk of environmental injustice.
File Size 651KB
Women and Environmental Justice: the presentation
See an outline presentation of the literature review…
Download Presentation File
File Size 4.52MB
OLGA: Our life – Greening Australia
WHIN and WHGNE are awaiting the outcome of a submission to the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. If funded, this exciting project would see women playing a vital role in addressing climate change as part of the Government's first steps in leading Australia to a clean, green future.
With a combined three decades experience in health promotion, WHIN and WHGNE would deliver innovative, community-based action on climate change. Why women? We know women are worst affected by climate change. We know they are most concerned about the environment and health. We know they have great networks. We know they work from the ground up. And we know they mostly don’t have the money to implement their ideas.
The OLGA project would resource 40 women's groups across 19 Local Government Areas from inner city Melbourne to the State border. Local women who understand their own networks and communities will determine the focus of each group. The OLGA project will target women in business, tourism and agriculture to engage and educate populations not traditionally associated with environmental concerns. For example, a funded OLGA group may work with their Chamber of Commerce to develop an award for eco-tourism or green practices in business; another may organise local learning for women around biodynamic agriculture; and another may lobbying for bike tracks in and between cities and towns.
Marginalised groups such as Indigenous and CALD women will also be targeted to develop activities that inform and engage their communities.
This innovative project will draw on our long experience in resourcing women's groups and attracting media attention and our expertise in using social media.
OLGA will use the principles of women's consciousness-raising and will build on the knowledge and enthusiasm of women to raise awareness of the immediate need for mitigation and adaptation strategies.
WHIN's submission to the Victorian Green Paper 2009
File Size 97KB
Sustainability Festival 2012: Women and Climate Change
Women's Health in the North is concerned about environmental justice! What do you know about women and climate change?
Test your knowledge with this quick quiz:
File Size 898KB