Global Environmental Change 23 (2013) 1714–1725

Urban flooding in Lagos, Nigeria: Patterns of vulnerability andresilience among women

Idowu Ajibade a,*, Gordon McBean a, Rachel Bezner-Kerr b

a Department of Geography, Western University, 1151 Richmond Street, London, ON N6A 5C2, Canadab Department of Development Sociology, Cornell University, 122 Academic Surge A, 222 Towers Road, Ithaca, NY 14853, United States

A R T I C L E I N F O

Article history:

Received 21 November 2012

Received in revised form 12 August 2013

Accepted 18 August 2013

Keywords:

Disaster vulnerability

Flood

Gender

Resilience

Women

Urban Lagos

A B S T R A C T

We report findings from a mixed method study of women’s gendered experiences with flash floods in the

coastal city of Lagos, Nigeria. Drawing on narrative accounts from 36 interviews, a survey (n = 453) and 6

focus group discussions, we investigate the impacts of floods in general and specifically the July 2011

flood event on women’s lives, livelihoods, and health. We draw on complementary perspectives from

feminist political ecology and social vulnerability theory to understand the ways in which such events

are perceived, experienced and managed by women of different socio-economic classes, households, and

geographic locations. Thematic and content analyses were used to examine women’s perceptions of

floods, while descriptive statistical analysis and chi-square test were employed to compare actual

impacts. Results show that women in general expressed no concern about gendered vulnerability to

flooding as most believed flood impacts were gender neutral. This dominant view however, was not

supported by evidence in the post-July 2011 flooding as impacts varied among income groups and

neighbourhoods, and gender differences were apparent. Women in the low-income neighbourhood

recorded higher impacts and slower recovery compared to other social categories of women and men. All

impacts reported were statistically significant between women in low and high income neighbourhoods

but most were not significant between women in middle and high income neighbourhoods. Gender

relations and roles intersecting with place, class, employment status, and healthcare, were mediating

factors that placed low-income women at greater risk of impacts than others. With climate change likely

to induce more extreme events, a case is made for collaborative and institutional efforts to systematically

boost urban poor women’s adaptive capacity through targeted programmes aimed at alleviating poverty

and improving women’s access to housing, health care and alternative sources of livelihoods.

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1. Introduction

Climate extremes manifested through natural hazards such asfloods, cyclones, hurricanes and droughts are already being felt bydifferent populations across the world (Few, 2003; IPCC, 2012).Among the differences that determine how people are affected byand respond to such events is gender (Dankelman, 2002; Brodyet al., 2008; Terry, 2009; Babugura, 2010). Gender refers to thesocially constructed identities, roles, responsibilities and oppor-tunities associated with being a man or woman (West andZimmerman, 1987). A number of scholars have highlighted thegender implications of climate-related disasters in terms ofpreparedness and impacts (Enarson and Morrow, 1998; Anderson,

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 226 378 6407.

E-mail addresses: iajibade@uwo.ca (I. Ajibade), gmcbean@uwo.ca (G. McBean),

rnb5@cornell.edu (R. Bezner-Kerr).

0959-3780/$ – see front matter � 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.08.009

2000; Sultana, 2010), division of labour (Ikeda, 1995; Enarson,2001), parenting (Peek and Fothergill, 2008) and post-disasterwork and recovery (Fothergill, 1996; Bradshaw, 2002; Enarsonet al., 2006). However, there are few studies on how gender rolesand responsibilities in everyday life interact with place, socio-economic status, and environmental conditions to shape differentwomen’s and men’s perception and experience of climatic hazards,particularly in the urban context.

Dominant narratives on gender and climate change in the‘Global South’ tend to portray women as vulnerable victims orresponsible caregivers in disaster contexts (Denton, 2002;MacGregor, 2010; Arora-Jonsson, 2011; Tschakert and Machado,2012), and men as heroes or sexual abusers in post-disastercontexts (Wiest et al., 1994; Walter, 2006). Such narratives tell uslittle about the variations in the experiences of different groups ofwomen and men. Indeed, evidence from around the world suggeststhat women are more likely to be hurt or killed in disasters thanmen (Neumayer and Plumper, 2007) and they are also more likely

I. Ajibade et al. / Global Environmental Change 23 (2013) 1714–1725 1715

to have low coping capacities (Nelson et al., 2002; Sultana, 2010).For example, women made up 90% of the total number of peoplekilled in the 1991 cyclone disaster in Bangladesh (Aguilar, 2008, p.2). Also, an analysis of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, a cross-border event, which devastated Indonesia, India, and Sri-Lanka,revealed that an estimated 60% of victims were women andchildren (Oxfam International, 2005). Furthermore, in the after-math of the 2010 flood in Pakistan, more women than menexperienced great difficulty coping because they were eitheroverlooked in the distribution of relief or were unable to reachplaces of relief distribution due to social norms that restricted theirmobility (Ariyabandu, 2012). While these cases are insightful, theyfocus on a simplistic dichotomy between men and women byleaving out other axes of social differentiation (including class,race, ethnicity, and age) and contextual elements such as deep-rooted inequalities, patterns of marginalisation, and unequalpower relations, that amplify or reduce the experience of disasterfor particular groups of women and men (Fordham and Ketteridge,1998; Enarson et al., 2006). Researchers in the sub-field of genderand disaster have called for a need to go beyond blanketgeneralisations about men’s and women’s experience in disastersince such views tend to unify their experiences and actions ashomogenous, thereby concealing the highly specific needs orcapabilities of different groups of women and men (MacGregor,2010; Arora-Jonsson, 2011). A few scholars that explored theinteraction of gender and disaster with class, age and householdstructure have offered varying conclusions (Fordham, 1999;Bradshaw, 2001, 2002; Pincha, 2010). They continue to encouragesimilar works in hopes of a better understanding and response togender issues in disaster.

We know more about women’s and men’s experience indisaster but less about the everyday mediating factors that shapehigh vulnerability or high resilience among different groups ofwomen and men. In simple terms, vulnerability is the susceptibili-ty to harm and resilience refers to the ability to adapt and thrive inthe face of threats posed by external events such as climatichazards (Sapirstein, 2006). In this paper, we focus on thevulnerability and resilience of women because on average morewomen are affected in disasters than men (Nelson et al., 2002;Neumayer and Plumper, 2007) and women’s needs and voices areoften ignored in disaster and post-disaster situations (Khondker,1996). We analyse how different groups of women perceive,experience, manage, and recover from disaster, specificallyclimate-induced flooding. Our analysis of women’s experience ofdisaster is not done in isolation but embedded in the socialrelationships they have with men, families, kinships, and thecommunities in which they live. We argue that an understandingof these issues can produce insights to better inform policies onwhere gender-specific considerations might contribute to disasterrisk reduction and climate change adaptation in vulnerablecommunities.

Using Lagos, Nigeria’s largest commercial hub and coastal city,as a case study, we explore the gendered experiences andperceptions of urban women with climate-related hazards. Themajority of studies on gender and climate change in Nigeria, andindeed in Africa, refer mainly to rural women in the agriculturaland natural resource sectors but offer little information aboutwomen in urban areas (Agwu and Okhimamhe, 2009; Terry, 2009;Omari, 2010; Petrie, 2010; BNRCC, 2011; Okali, 2011). Yet urbancentres are home to a large number of women who are already atrisk from floods, heat waves and other hazards that climate changeis expected to exacerbate (Satterthwaite et al., 2007). At the time ofthis writing, there is very little work published on the genderedimpacts of climate-related hazards in the urban context in Nigeria.We are aware of two papers that suggest floods disproportionatelyaffect women (Adelekan, 2010; Etuonovbe, 2011) but no clear

reasons were given by the authors for the high casualty rate foundamong women compared to men. In both papers, sex was simplyintroduced as a variable in post-disaster investigation without anydeeper gender analysis. To address this knowledge gap, we drawon social vulnerability theory and feminist political ecology tounderstand the structural inequalities and gendered risks ineveryday life which create a differential experience of disasterbetween men and women, and also among women of differentsocio-economic classes and geographic locations in urban Lagos.We argue that by identifying the mediating factors of vulnerabilityand resilience, policy makers are able to find empirical basis toselectively target the most vulnerable women and thereforeconcentrate adaptation efforts to where it is needed the most.

In this paper, we conducted a modified gender analysis of theJuly 10, 2011 flood event that submerged the city of Lagos. Theflood was a combination of heavy precipitation and coastalflooding due to high tides coinciding with a low-pressure stormsystem which raised sea and tidal water levels by over 122centimetres, thereby overwhelming drainage channels and coastaldefences around the Atlantic Ocean and the Lagos Lagoon. Duringthis period, a disaster declaration was issued by the Lagos Stategovernment and appeals were made to residents to be calm. By thetime the flood subsided, an estimated 100 people died, thousandswere displaced and properties worth over 50 billion Naira ($US 320million) were destroyed (Oladunjoye, 2011). In our exploration ofwomen’s experiences in the disaster, we focus on three LocalCouncil Development Areas (LCDAs): Victoria Island axis, Ajah, andBadia, which are classified as high, middle and low income areasrespectively (see Nwokoro and Agbola, 2011). We draw on primarydata from fieldwork, relevant news media coverage, existingpublished literature on gender, disaster, and climate change, andon experiential knowledge of having lived and worked in Nigeriafor many years (reference to first author only). We explore genderdynamics in the Nigerian society and highlight ways thatgeographic location, socio-economic class, household structureand healthcare access come to affect women’s experience of flooddisasters. The results of this study point towards a need for a moresynchronised policy approach on disaster risk reduction and socialand health policies to better enhance the coping and adaptivecapacity of urban poor women.

2. Women and disaster vulnerability

We combine social vulnerability (Blaikie et al., 1994; Bohleet al., 1994; Adger and Kelly, 1999; Cutter et al., 2003; Cutter, 2005)and feminist political ecology theories (Rocheleau et al., 1996) todevelop a dense and rich information about the material, social,and discursive realities of women’s experiences in both normal anddisaster periods.

Vulnerability to disaster is a function of both physical and socialfactors. The former includes exposure to risks such as floods andstorms surges. The latter involves social and political arrangementsthat limit or enhance the capacity of individuals or social groups tocope with and adapt to hazard or external stress placed on theirlivelihood and wellbeing (Adger and Kelly, 1999). Scholars whodraw on social vulnerability theory argue that vulnerability isdetermined by social inequalities rooted in gender, class, culture,race, age, and other power structures, together with situationalfactors such as where people live, their physical and mental health,literacy status, household size and composition, and resourcesavailable to them to cope with crises (Mustafa, 1998; Cutter et al.,2003; Cannon, 2010).

In societies that are more inequitable, women tend to be athigher risks of disaster because of pre-existing disadvantages insocial, economic, political, legal, and cultural status and opportu-nities (Mak, 2005; Deere and Doss, 2006; Seager, 2006; Terry,

I. Ajibade et al. / Global Environmental Change 23 (2013) 1714–17251716

2009). This problem is particularly evident in developing countrieswhere a higher proportion of the poor and those who lack access toresources and decision-making in information, finance, personalhealth, education, training, and rights, are women and girls(Vlassoff, 1994; UNDP, 1995, 2007; UNESCO, 2012). Women’s lackof training and education, for example, means that they are forcedto work in low-wage informal sectors and earn lower incomewhich may limit their ability to diversify their livelihoodcapabilities, or increase their resilience against climate-relatedshocks such as floods or drought (FAO, 2011). Women, for example,constitute a majority (over 70%) of the workforce in the low wageagricultural sector in rural Africa (Babugura, 2010). In India, nearly90% of women employed outside the agricultural sector are ininformal employment with over 70% working as street vendors,garment makers, and construction workers (United Nations, 2010,p. 89). Employment in such low wage sectors tend to increasewomen’s poverty and vulnerability to climatic shocks (Omari,2010). Studies from Bangladesh have shown that in addition topoverty, social marginalisation and the lack of potentially life-saving skills such as swimming can also increase women’svulnerability to climatic disasters (Rowshan, 1992; Alim, 2009).To build women’s resilience against climate-related hazards, socialvulnerability theorists argue that attention must be paid to thesocially constructed sources of vulnerability in the household andsociety, and particularly to the gender differentiated vulnerabil-ities and opportunities that men and women have in daily life.Used uncritically, this theoretical approach can lead to unproduc-tive generalisations about women as a social category and canoveremphasise women’s dependency and need (Fordham, 2004;Enarson et al., 2006).

To avoid criticisms about generalizations, we turn to feministpolitical ecology. Feminist political ecology rejects the notion thatwomen are a single autonomous group: instead, attention is drawnto the various axes of power and context in which gender interactswith class, ethnicity, race, culture, and national identity to shapepeople’s experience of and interests in the environment (Roche-leau et al., 1996; Schroeder, 1997). The analytical frameworkoffered by this approach seeks to understand and interpret localexperiences in the context of global processes of environmentaland economic change. Feminist political ecology integrate ideasabout gender relations in specific environmental contexts with anemphasis on women’s practical environmental knowledge andissues of gender inequalities, environmental degradation, anddisaster vulnerability (Enarson et al., 2006). Gendered rights toproperty, resources, space, and decision making and women’s rolesand responsibilities in the household and community are centralconcerns under this framework.

Enarson et al. (2006) noted that apart from poverty, women’ssusceptibility to disaster is also influenced by their gendered rolesas mothers and caregivers; their ability to seek safety duringdisaster emergencies is often restricted by their responsibilities tothe very young and the very old, both of whom require help andsupervision (Babugura, 2010). Additionally, women generally bearthe task of finding solutions to the socioeconomic instability andfood situation following natural disasters or destroyed harvest(Ariyabandu, 2003; Jungehulsing, 2012). Such gendered responsi-bilities are historically rooted in cultural practices and powerstructures in societies. The gendered inequality that women face innormal and disaster times is often reinforced by customary laws,globalization processes, and hyper-urbanisation (Enarson andMorrow, 1998). These elements play a significant role in narrowingwomen’s access to financial and productive assets necessary tocope and recover from extreme weather events. For female-headedhouseholds dependent on agriculture, land, for example, is theirmost productive asset but statutory or customary laws oftenrestrict women’s land and property rights in many parts of the

world (Schroeder, 1997; World Bank, 2001, 2007). Such lawshinder women from using their lands as collateral to enableeconomic recovery in post-disaster situations.

Economic globalization have also been shown to impactcommunities and populations in gender specific ways; affectingwomen as consumers, care-givers, social-care users and economicactors (Enarson and Morrow, 1998; Mark et al., 2006). For example,structural adjustment policies imposed on poor nations, whichrequired the deregulation of the local economy, privatisation ofpublic services, and reduction in spending on social services,demonstrably affected women directly by reducing their standardof living and general health, and intensifying paid and unpaidworkloads (Chipeta, 1993; Sadasivam, 1997; Zack-Williams, 2000;Abouharb and Cingranelli, 2006). Furthermore, more recent freetrade policies such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO)agreements on liberalisation in agriculture have undermined localmarkets and increased pressure on men to migrate for wage workin urban areas thereby leaving women and children impoverishedin unsustainable rural environments (Bello, 2004). Such policieshave also spurred rapid urbanisation and population growth inmany cities, thus stimulating the concentration of low-incomepopulations in hazardous urban spaces where floods, storm surges,mudslides, air pollution and other environmental hazards are ofteninescapable (Cutter, 1995; Hewitt, 1997). While cities presentopportunities to women, they also make life an unending strugglefor those living in hazardous settlements without access to water,decent housing, sanitation and other vital basic amenities (Moser,1996; Sweetman, 1996; Enarson and Morrow, 1998). Thesestructural disadvantages act together with social and genderinequalities to aggravate urban poor women’s vulnerability toclimatic hazards. It is likely that gender inequality and associatedvulnerabilities will be exacerbated under conditions of climatechange (Adger et al., 2003), especially in societies that fail toaddress the socially embedded discriminatory laws, roles or biasesthat make women victims rather than resourceful agents in normaland disaster times. To prevent this, an approach that promoteswomen’s empowerment and resourcefulness is required.

Researchers in development ethics and feminist science haveargued for a human rights-based approach (HRBA) as a practicallens for evaluating the protection and empowerment of women innormal and disaster situations. They try to link women’s humanrights to disaster risk theoretically in research, practice, andpolitical work. For example, they ask how social inequalities withinand between nations impact the human rights of women or howlocal land-use decisions affect the housing, employment, trans-portation and risk spreading options for women (Enarson et al.,2006). The human rights approach provides a legal and moraljustification for action where social policies and cultural practicesdiscriminate against certain women or heighten their vulnerabilityin disaster situation. A human rights-based approach in this studyoffers ways of incorporating fairness and responsibilities whilealso providing room for engagement rather than just descriptiveanalysis (Tschakert and Machado, 2012). This approach allows usto unmask pre-existing social inequalities as well as structural andgendered violence that constrain certain groups of women fromsuccessfully coping or adapting to climatic and other stressors.

3. Study site, design and methods

3.1. Study area

This study adopted a mixed method of data collection whichinvolved the administration of a structured survey, in-depthinterviews, and focus group discussions (FGDs) with women 18years of age and above from three geographic areas in urban Lagos(Badia, Ajah, and Victoria Island Axis) (Fig. 1). Badia is a slum

Fig. 1. Map of Lagos showing income levels.

I. Ajibade et al. / Global Environmental Change 23 (2013) 1714–1725 1717

settlement in mainland Lagos with predominantly low-incomegroups. Ajah is situated on the northern half of Lagos Island andmostly occupied by a high proportion of middle-income peopleand a few high-income groups. Victoria Island with its annex inLekki Peninsula is situated on the south of Lagos Island. The areahas both a high proportion of high-income households, and asmaller group of low-income people living in squatter settlementsand neighbourhoods (Kuramo Beach settlement and Lekki-Jakandearea). Fieldwork for this study was carried out from May toNovember 2011. The study received clearance from the WesternUniversity Ethics Board and the Ministry of Health, Lagos. Allethical processes of confidentiality and informed consent werefollowed.

3.2. Design

This study used a mixed method that combined qualitative andquantitative analysis in order to provide a rich and in-depthunderstanding of women’s perceptions, vulnerabilities and multi-ple experiences in disaster and post-disaster periods. Weconducted in-depth interviews in the pre-disaster phase, a surveyin the immediate disaster period, and a focus group discussion inthe post-disaster phase. Before commencing with the fieldwork,the first author visited all the study sites and undertook a short-term field observation for a month.

3.3. Data collection and analysis

We conducted 36 in-depth interviews in the study areas (13women in Badia, 13 women in Victoria Island, and 10 women inAjah). The purpose of the interview was to gain a deeperunderstanding of women’s lived experiences in non-flooding

time periods. Selection of study participants involved asystematic random sampling of every 10 houses to ensure arepresentative coverage of women in the study sites. Theinterview began with guiding questions about the participant’shousehold composition, socio-economic status, occupation,housing and environmental conditions, and past floodingexperiences. The guiding questions were regularly reviewedand were changed to adapt to issues raised by participants. Eachinterview took an average of 1 h to conduct and some includeddiscussions with spouses, partners, or other family members. Ittook approximately four weeks to conduct all interviews. In thethree study areas, we spoke to women of different occupationalbackgrounds including petty traders (10), lawyers (2), foodvendors (2), sex workers (2), interior decorator (1), teachers (6),accountants (2), housewives (4), students (4), and unemployed(3). Daily journals were kept and detailed field notes writtenafterwards. The interviews were tape recorded and transcribedverbatim in order to accurately represent respondents’ views.The data was entered into NVivo 9 qualitative software forfurther thematic analysis (Richard and Richards, 1994). Theanalysis was first guided by themes and constructs relating towomen’s roles and responsibility in the home and society, aswell as their perception, experience and coping strategies duringflood disasters (Anderson, 1994; Enarson and Morrow, 1997;Norris et al., 2002; Callaghan et al., 2007; Tong et al., 2011). Aline-by-line coding was used in order to give a basic structure tothe arrangement of the data gathered (Corbin and Strauss,1990). The qualitative data analysis was an iterative andinductive process, in which themes and findings from the datadirected the development of hierarchically organised keycategories and sub-categories. All 36 interview transcripts werecoded using the same coding scheme. This technique was seen

I. Ajibade et al. / Global Environmental Change 23 (2013) 1714–17251718

to be the most effective way of identifying similarities anddifferences among women’s perceptions and lived experiencesin non-flooding time periods.

The structured survey planned for early July coincided with Lagosreceiving about 264 mm of rain in 18 h, a volume normally expectedfor one month (NIMET, 2011). Homes and properties were damagedand thousands of people were displaced. The survey research begantwo days after the rainstorm, and was administered for a period oftwo and half weeks. The purpose of the survey was to gather first-hand information about the rainstorm and subsequent impact onwomen’s lives, livelihoods and health. Questions posed includedhouseholds’ experience during the flood, flood impact on family,health concerns, access to health care, and decision-makingprocesses during the period. A total of 453 questionnaires(Badia = 262; Ajah = 72; Victoria Island Axis = 119) were adminis-tered by the first author and 10 trained enumerators to randomlyselected women in every ten houses in the study areas. For thesurvey data analysis, descriptive and bivariate analyses were donefor relevant variables, using SPSS 18 (Statistical Package for SocialSciences). In cases where patterned relationships were observed,tests of significance were done using t-test for continuous variables,and chi-square test for nominal variables at P-value = 0.05.

Two and half months after the July flood disaster, a total of 6 focusgroup discussions were conducted with women in the three studyareas to allow women to compare and contrast their perceptions,experiences, and feelings about the July flood event. Each focusgroup discussion consisted of 6–8 women from different education-al, socio-economic, religious, and professional backgrounds. Theparticipants were drawn from a mix of new and old participantsfrom the interviews and survey. There were collaborative conversa-tions around open-ended questions, beginning with findings fromthe interviews and survey and an explanation of the researcher’sinterest in learning more about the women’s post-disasterexperiences and recovery. This repeated engagement resulted inrich data sets and showed that individuals were capable of holdingmultifaceted, even contradictory positions, depending on thecontext within which they spoke (Blomley, 2005). Data from thefocus group discussions was first coded conceptually based ongeneral knowledge of women’s experience in disaster (i.e., domesticworkload, gendered division of labour, health problems, and loss ofincome) but coding categories expanded and changed as newpatterns emerged with these categories.

4. Results and discussion

Findings from this study revealed urban women’s perceptionsand experiences with flash floods, including factors that enhancedor constrained their recovery. We begin by describing the everydayliving conditions of women of different socio-economic classes,household structures, and geographic locations in Lagos. In thesecond section, we discuss their views about flood events andwhether impacts are gendered or not. The final section elucidateswomen’s experiences during the July 10 flooding which coincidedwith a storm surge in Victoria Island. A description of impacts,coping and recovery strategies is included. Direct quotations fromtranscripts illustrate selected themes and serve to contextualiseparticipants’ responses. Pseudonyms were used to protect theidentity of respondents.

4.1. Gender roles and wellbeing in ‘normal’ times

4.1.1. Low-income neighbourhood

Environmental and housing conditions in the low-incomeneighbourhood of Badia were extremely poor. The terrain wasswampy, degraded, and unsanitary due to poor land reclamation

and waste-filling activities which over time have increased thesusceptibility of the area to ground subsidence. Most of thesurveyed respondents (64%) lived either in a wooden shack or incabins on stilts and self-rated (65%) their housing conditions aspoor. Day-to-day life for women in this neighbourhood wasparticularly difficult and shaped by several dynamics includingpoverty, illiteracy, insecurity, domestic violence and genderinequality in the household. Women bore the sole duty of homemaintenance, family care and nutrition and were also resourcefulagents who worked in informal jobs to earn additional income fortheir households. Educational achievement among women in thisarea was extremely low. Of the 262 women surveyed in Badia, lessthan 1% had tertiary education, which explains why three-quarters(75%) of the surveyed respondents were engaged in the informalsector, mainly as traders and small business owners. While manyof these women earn less than their husbands, their contribution tohousehold welfare was substantial even when considered sepa-rately from the value of their domestic work. Many of them worklonger hours than men to increase household economic security.Women’s obligation to generate additional income for the family islinked to their husband’s poverty and practice of polygamy. Men inBadia, most of whom were truck drivers and transporters, hadthree to five wives, but being low-income earners themselves,these men were unable to cater for all their wives and children.They therefore pass the ‘breadwinning responsibility’ to thewomen while maintaining the primary decision-making role inthe home. This additional economic burden combined with thestressors of domestic and physical violence typical of slums(Rashid, 2000), affected the Badia women physically and emotion-ally with negative implications on their overall health andwellbeing. Tina, a mother of three children, gave an account ofthe gender relations and economic burden on women in Badia, shesaid:

‘‘This place is a ghetto, so you can’t really say much abouthusbands. Husbands do not matter much in this type ofsituation, they give little. Most women here are single mothers,while some have husbands but their combined income is stillvery small. Most men are Okada riders (bike riders) while othersare conductors and transporters; they belong to the union. Mostof the union members have more than five wives. They just givethe women whatever they have. So the women have to cater forthemselves and their children.’’ (Tina, 29, interviewee, Badia,June 14, 2011)

This statement from Tina suggests that low-income women inpolygamous marriages face similar, if not slightly, worse economicsituations than single mothers—where in some cases the women’sdemands for increased financial assistance from their unemployedor underemployed husbands led to frustration, embitterment, anddomestic violence. By shifting the burden of provisioning towomen, the practice of polygamy in low-income householdscontributes to women’s poverty, with consequences of low savingsand fewer resources to respond and recover from climate-relateddisaster or other emergencies.

4.1.2. Middle-income and high-income neighbourhoods

Compared to Badia, environmental and housing conditionswere better for middle-income women in Ajah and high-incomewomen in Victoria Island. All respondents (100%) in Ajah andVictoria Island lived in concrete houses and most (Ajah 100%;Victoria Island 94%) self-rated their housing conditions as good.These two areas were cleaner and had better sanitation facilitiesbut remain prone to flooding due to their coastal topography andinadequate drainage systems. Women in both areas had signifi-cantly higher educational attainment than women in Badia.Approximately 75% of women surveyed in Ajah had tertiary

I. Ajibade et al. / Global Environmental Change 23 (2013) 1714–1725 1719

education and over half (53.6%) were employed in the formalsector as civil servants. In Victoria Island, 36.4% of surveyrespondents had tertiary education and a sizeable number(39.5%) were also civil servants. Greater income stability as wellas increased access to health care services were found among thesewomen because of their employment in the formal sector whichtranslated into regular salary at month end and to having fullhealth insurance coverage either through an employment pro-gramme or through the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS)(Ibiwoye and Adeleke, 2008). The influence of household structureon women’s finances in Ajah and in the high-income areas ofVictoria Island was unclear as diverse types of households,including monogamous, polygamous, male-headed and female-headed families existed, and there were a range of financialrelationships within marriages. In some cases, women helped tosupport the home when men earned little or were out of job, and inmany other cases men were the sole breadwinner while womenwere housewives. The pre-existing social, economic as well asenvironmental conditions of women in Ajah and Victoria Islandsuggested that they had some vital resources that could enhancetheir coping and adaptive capacity in disaster situations.

4.2. Women’s perceptions about flood and gender

In this section, women’s perceptions about floods in the pre-disaster phase are discussed and compared with actual impactsreported in the post-disaster phase (i.e., after, the July 10, 2011rainstorm).

4.2.1. Gendered vs. gender neutral

While almost all women interviewed in the study areasperceived flood as a disturbance, most did not consider its impactto be gendered. Many of the women interviewed prior to the July10 flash flood were of the opinion that floods affect men andwomen equally but considered its impacts to vary depending onthe level of poverty, place of residence, and the nature of anindividual’s economic activity, with gender issues playing a minorto no role. After several probing questions, only two women fromthe low-income area of Badia reflectively changed their minds, andstated that flood impacts were gendered. Kate, a trader and amother of four children, said:

‘‘Flood increases the work that woman do at home. We wouldneed to fetch more water so that we would be able to have

Table 1Comparing flood impacts on women by geographic areas.

Impacts Badia (B) (n = 262) (%) Ajah (A) (n = 72

Human livesDeath 7.6 0.0

Personal health problems 56.9 6.9

Illness of household member 56.1 26.4

Injury of household member 14.1 0.0

Displacement and hardship 56.9 6.9

LivelihoodsLoss of income 45.8 0.0

Low business sales 29.8 0

Missed-out on productive work 36.6 0.0

AssetsCollapsed building 1.9 0

Damage to properties 82.4 31.9

Damage to homes 80.5 18.1

No impact at all 0.4 34.7

a Based on Pearson’s chi-squared test: NS = not significant. NA = not applicable.* P < 0.05.** P < 0.01.

water to clean and wash. For those with babies, they wouldhave to take care of the baby more so that the baby would not beexposed to cold and germs. It is also a woman that takes thechildren to school and looks after what the family would eat,even if her husband gives her money she has to go out and buyfood. Husbands only give money but wives have to go out to buythe food even during raining periods. To say the truth, heavyrain and flood bother us, women, more’’ (Kate, 38, interviewee,Badia, June 16, 2011).

Furthermore, Joy, a single mother, in the Badia neighbourhoodexplained how she suffers food insecurity and loss in businessactivities during flooding periods. She expressed:

‘‘Floods disturb my business, I cannot sell. The pure waterdistributors will not come down to this area; they always placethe bags at the main road so I am forced to go back and forthcarrying the bags on my head. When it rains heavily, I can’t goout, getting food also becomes difficult. If we don’t havesomeone who is strong enough to go out and buy food, we maynot eat.’’ (Joy, 45, single mother, interviewee, Badia June 16,2011)

A different view from those of Kate and Joy was held by Paula inthe high-income area of Victoria Island. Paula mentioned that floodimpacts affect men more because of their heroic tendencies towant to protect those considered weak such as women andchildren. Apart these three women, all other respondents in thestudy areas perceived flood impacts as gender neutral.

A number of disaster studies have demonstrated that thedivision of labour at home, particularly regarding care giving rolesand responsibilities, often increase women’s pre-disaster vulnera-bility and places additional burdens on women during recovery(Ikeda, 1995; Peek and Fothergill, 2008). In our study areas, womendid not seem to be aware of these issues, even after further probing,many of them maintained that flood impacts are not gendered.Two reasons for this dominant perspective is that perhaps womendid not engage critically on flood issues and probably acceptedsocial norms to the extent that they did not question the genderedimpacts, since those impacts were part of a broader structuralgender inequality in terms of workloads. Women’s silence aboutgendered vulnerability in disaster speaks to deeply embeddedgender roles in the Nigerian society which led most women toconclude that flood impacts (on men and women) were naturalrather than socially constructed.

) (%) Victoria Island (VI) (n = 119) (%) P-value (x2)a

B-A B-VI A-VI

0.0 * ** NA

6.7 NS ** *

37.8 ** ** NS

0.0 ** ** NA

6.7 ** ** NS

9.2 ** ** **

21.8 ** ** **

28.6 ** ** **

0.8 NS * NS

52.9 ** ** **

3.8 ** ** **

43.7 ** ** NS

I. Ajibade et al. / Global Environmental Change 23 (2013) 1714–17251720

4.3. Differential impacts and coping strategies in the July flood

disaster

4.3.1. Physical impacts and geographic location

While all three study areas were heavily flooded during the Julyrainstorm, the physical impacts of the flood were minimal forwomen in Ajah and Victoria Island. Those who suffered greatestimpacts in terms of physical damage to their homes and propertiesand also experienced homelessness and other hardships wereresidents from the low-income area of Badia. Only women in Badiareported the deaths of household members (7.6%). They alsoreported a significantly higher percentage of injuries of householdmembers (14.1%) and illnesses (56.1%) compared to Ajah (injury0%; illness 26.4%) and Victoria Island (injury 0%; illness 37.8%)(Table 1). Incidence of infectious diseases such as malaria, typhoid,cholera, and gastro-enteritis were also recorded in Badia during theflooding period but not in the other areas. The differential impactson women in the three geographic areas were perhaps because oftheir pre-existing environmental and housings conditions. Asexplained earlier (Section 4.1.2), both conditions were consider-ably better for women in Ajah and Victoria Island. In fact, somerespondents in Ajah (34.7%) and Victoria Island (43.7%) reportedexperiencing no physical impact at all during the July flooding(Table 1). Cross tabulation using chi-square test indicatesstatistically significant differences in impacts exist betweenwomen in low income (Badia) and high income (Victoria Island)neighbourhoods. However, most impacts were not statisticallysignificant between women in middle income (Ajah) and highincome (Victoria Island) neighbourhoods. Access to qualityhousing in a cleaner and safer environment was probably anintervening factor that reduced the effects of flooding on women inthe latter areas.

4.3.2. Gender, flood impacts, and socio-economic class

Findings from the Victoria Island focus groups showed thathigh-income women did not experience significantly higherimpacts than their husbands during the July flooding. Generalproblems with restriction in movement, damage to properties, andtraffic jams were experienced by both men and women in the area.Within the household, most women had guards, drivers, and maidswho helped in the cleaning and caring for children’s safety, andthey also ran errands necessary to restore damaged properties.With child care and home care assistance, women in this arearaised little or no concern about gendered impacts during theflooding period. Their only complaint was about the physical stressof driving to work under flooding conditions. Studies from theUnited States show that affluent women also experience theemotional impacts of loss of homes and belonging, the anxiety oversafety of children, and the stress of rebuilding in post-disasterperiods (Enarson and Fordham, 2004; Fothergill and Peek, 2004).Such emotional impacts were not reported by most of the affluentwomen in Victoria Island because they lost little in terms ofpersonal assets or livelihoods and their family members did notsuffer physical injuries.

In the middle income area of Ajah, the gender division of labourin normal times was carried through during the disaster, andappeared to relatively increase men’s exposure to flood impacts asthey sought to protect their wives and children from the floodwaters. Workloads escalated both for men and women, althoughdifferent in type and timing. Men helped to drain water withbuckets and also constructed emergency drainage channels toallow flood runoff. Women, on the other hand, were more activewithin the household–cleaning, cooking, and ensuring familywellbeing. While men’s disaster work was mostly in public andtherefore visible during and in the immediate aftermath of theflood, women’s work was in the private (home) and persisted long

after the disaster. Women ensured that children and other sickfamily members were cared for and also sought ways to restoredamaged clothing and other household items.

In the case of low-income women in Badia, significant anddifferential impacts were found between men and women. Factorsthat accentuated gendered impacts on the low-income womenincluded poverty, environmental conditions of place of residence,and gendered access to healthcare. These socially and environ-mentally constructed challenges resulted in a larger number ofwomen in the low-income area being severely affected by theimpacts of the July flash flood. The factors responsible for impactsare discussed in details below.

4.3.3. Loss of livelihood and attachment to the home

More women than men in Badia were affected by the July flashflood due to their attachment to the home. The home (including thephysical structure) meant ‘everything’ to women in this location. Itserved multiple purposes beyond shelter and family privacy: it wastheir source of livelihood–a space to display their petty goods forsale; their maternity centre – a place where midwives assist in thedelivery of their children; and their security – a safe haven fromhuman assailants and inclement weather. The attack on the homeby the rainstorm therefore had a direct and significant impact onthe livelihoods and overall wellbeing of women in this area. Nancy,a petty trader and mother of four children, suffered considerableeconomic loss during the flood. She said:

‘‘I sell my goods at home; I’m a caterer by profession. You knowthe water affected me, I could not go outside, and so I could notsell. My baking materials got spoilt because the water filled ourhouse. I could not find my cooking utensils and goods. The rainspoilt everything–flour, cassava, even the meat that I justbought I couldn’t save it, everything got spoilt.’’ (Focus groupparticipant, Badia, September 29, 2011)

Several women in Badia recorded significant economic lossbecause their goods, which were their main source of livelihood,got damaged alongside other personal and family belongings. Sincemost men in the area were truck drivers and transporters, they hadless attachment to the home and were often away in search ofwork. Men therefore did not experience the same sense of personalloss as women during the July flooding. Furthermore, survey datashowed that of the three categories of women, those who recordedhigh proportion in loss of income were the Badia women (Badia45.8%; Victoria Island 9.2%; Ajah 0%) (Table 1). The minimal to noloss of income reported in the Ajah and Victoria Island areas wasprobably linked to the fact that most of the respondents weresalary earners in the formal sector, and thus their income was notsubject to the vagaries of the weather.

4.3.4. Heightened anxiety over children’s wellbeing

Studies have consistently shown that the care for childrenand their wellbeing both in normal and disaster times fallslargely on women (Fothergill and Peek, 2004; Enarson et al.,2006; Peek and Fothergill, 2008). Women in Badia hadparticularly challenging caregiving duties during the Julyflooding because of the poor environmental and housingconditions in which they lived; both factors exacerbated thescale and experience of the disaster. The Badia women wereextremely anxious about their children’s safety and healthbecause there were higher chances of children falling into acanal or into the sewage-filled flood water. There were alsohigher chances of a house collapsing since most of the shelterswere dilapidated. With these environmental health and housinghazards, women’s anxiety rose as they tried to protect theirchildren from the flood disaster. A mother of four childrenexpressed the following during a focus group discussion:

I. Ajibade et al. / Global Environmental Change 23 (2013) 1714–1725 1721

‘‘The rain fell a day after my baby’s naming ceremony. I had toabandon our properties because my newly born baby was inserious cold and almost dying. I took all my children elsewherein fact three people assisted me. It was God that saved me, mybaby was badly affected by the cold and rain, and it was almostbreathless before everybody came to my rescue. Flood is badwhen you live in a wooden house and water enters and youdon’t leave the house on time.’’ (Focus group participant, Badia,September 29, 2011)

4.3.5. Decline in privacy and personal hygiene

A gendered crisis during the flooding period was the lack ofsanitation and privacy. Both men and women in Badia were forcedto sleep outdoors during the flooding period but women had littleaccess to clean water for bathing or personal ‘female hygiene’.While men were able to relieve themselves anywhere, womencould only relieve themselves after dusk to avoid being seen by thecrowd. This type of challenge exposes women to health relatedproblems such as urinary tract infections (Sultana, 2010) and alsoto harassment and sexual assault (Krishnakumar, 2003) whichcould severely affect their dignity, safety and sense of privacy(Davis, 2006). Susan, a young mother, explained women’s concernsabout privacy during the flood disaster. She said:

‘‘The flood really affected women, all our clothes got spoilt, andwe were naked. Everything got spoilt. People were sleeping onsand and we could only have our bath at night. No home to goto, mattresses were just floating on top of water.’’ (Focus groupparticipant, Badia, September 29, 2011)

4.3.6. Decline in personal sense of peace

A number of women in the Badia focus group discussion alsoexpressed experiencing higher stress and a decline in their sense ofpeace during the flood period. They lamented about not having thefinancial resources to change their situation. Michelle stated:

‘‘You know as a woman the challenges are our own, once it iscloudy, our mind is no longer at rest. The responsibility ofmanaging floods is on women, the men will just take their shirtsand go out and the women will work tirelessly. As I am speakingwith you, if I have money today I will just relocate out of Badiato another place because the problems I face during rainyseason are too much, it is money that is delaying me. Wheneverthe weather is cloudy my problem increases and my mind willno longer be at rest because of panic.’’ (Focus group participant,Badia, September 29).

Similar to Badia, women interviewed in the Mekong Delta ofVietnam reported increased anxiety, fears and intra-householdtensions as a result of the dangers and damage associated withflooding and its livelihood impacts (Few and Tran, 2010).

4.3.7. Flood, maternal health, and gendered health policy

Gendered and discriminatory health policies can compound theimpacts of flood disasters on low-income women. This wasrevealed in the story of Nadia, a young Hausa woman who lost herbaby during the July flooding.

Nadia was about six months pregnant when she was urged byher friends to seek obstetric care at the public hospital. Whenshe got there, she was confronted by the ‘Compulsory SpousalBlood Donation’ (CSBD) policy which requires pregnant womento bring their husband to donate blood before they couldregister for prenatal care. Nadia’s husband, Karim, refused todonate blood on behalf of his wife because he considered blooddonation as ‘Haram’–a sin against God. Karim offered to pay inlieu of donating his blood but his offer was rejected on the

grounds that if everyone paid then the policy is ineffective.Constrained by the inability to meet the blood donationrequirement, Nadia was forced to have her baby at home withthe help of a midwife. Her delivery day coincided with the Julyrainstorm, which flooded the Badia community and swept rawsewage, urine, and refuse into Nadia’s home, thus contaminat-ing the water and instruments used during the delivery. As aresult of exposure to unhygienic and unsafe environmentalconditions in the first minutes of life, Nadia’s new born childdeveloped neonatal tetanus infection and died shortly after.Nadia also became ill during this period due to the lack ofproper medical attention.

Nadia’s case is not an isolated incident in Badia. Focus groupparticipants confirmed five pregnant women in their communitysuffered similar mishaps in previous flood events due to theirinability to access pre-natal care because of the CSBD policy. TheCSBD policy is a proactive measure by the Lagos State governmentto make blood available at a cheaper rate to surgical patients,especially those with cancer, accident trauma patients, orpregnancy-related complications. However, its mandatory statusand gender-blind failure to note women’s lack of decision-makingpower within the household defeats its ultimate goal of savinglives. By subjecting the wellbeing of a pregnant woman to herhusband’s decision to donate or withhold his blood, the CSBDpolicy unintentionally contributes to maternal and infantmortality, a Millennium Development Goal on which Nigeria’sranking is extremely low with the rate of 800 infants deaths per100,000 live birth and 1 in 13 chance of maternal death frompregnancy related complications (Ogunjimi et al., 2012). What ismore, the CSBD policy infringes on the right of women to health,especially women who by the virtue of their special circumstances(such as unmarried women, women with religious restrictions, orthose whose husbands become ill, abandon them or pass awayduring the course of the pregnancy) are unable to meet the blooddonation requirement, and therefore are denied care at a verycrucial point in their lives (WARDC, 2008). This case confirms theUnited Nations studies that suggest gender discriminatorypolicies and practices can alone double the vulnerability ofwomen to the direct and indirect impacts of climate change(Aguilar, 2008; UNEP, 2011).

4.4. Women’s coping and recovery strategies

4.4.1. Enhancement and constraining factors

Women in high-income Victoria Island and middle-incomeAjah appeared to experience fewer constraints with recovery dueto access to economic resources, strong social networks, and theirsocial choice to temporarily or permanently relocate from floodprone zones. The prospects for recovery, however, was dauntingfor low-income women in Badia who had less social choice, morepractical constraints, and fewer financial resources. Those whodesired to permanently relocate from Badia as a form ofadaptation were not able to do so due to the lack of finance. Inaddition, many of the petty traders had no money to restartbusinesses that were destroyed during the flood; hence, somechanged jobs, mostly to casual employment with lower wages.Post-disaster recovery was a harrowing process as none of theflood victims in Badia received social assistance from thegovernment or civil society groups. In terms of psychologicalrecovery, the Badia women however, appeared to rebound fairlywell in the aftermath of the July flooding. They showed signs ofstable mental adjustments with minimal traces of short-termtrauma. The repeated experiences of disaster together withreliance on prayer were factors the women identified asresponsible for their enhanced psychological resilience. Flood

Table 2Flood impacts, coping strategies, constraints and adaptation priorities for vulnerable women.

Impacts of flash flood Current coping strategy Constrains to recovery Key adaptation priority and possible

interventions

Damage to homes and

shops

Call on community members

for help, sand fill, sleep out.

� Finance for proper

reconstruction.

� Promote access to safe and affordable

housing for women and men.

Displacement Temporary relocation. � Finance for permanent

relocation from the hazardous area.

� Improve on early warning systems.

Loss of income for women

in the informal sector

Change of jobs; selling of personal

assets.

� Limited alternative income

generating activities; limited

financial savings.

� Improve access to micro-credit and

micro-insurance facilities; promote

acquisition of competitive economic

and vocations skills.

Injuries and spread of

infectious diseases

Use local herbs; buy drugs from

chemists.

� Increase caring duties for the

injured and the sick.

� Improve access to health care services.

� High cost of health care services. � Supply of first aid kit.

� Lack of post-disaster relief.

Infant and maternal

mortality

Visit midwives, religious centre,

and clinics.

� Gendered health care policy. � Promote free access to maternal and

childcare facilities; repeal discriminatory

health policies.

� Women constitute majority of those

who care for sick but they have

limited access to health care services.

Food insecurity in female-

headed households

Wait till rain subsides. � Fear of failing into a ditch

in the water logged area.

� Target female-headed households and

supply them with readymade meals

during disaster emergencies.

Lack of sanitation and

scarcity of clean water

Bath in the dawn and wait till

dusk to use the washroom.

� Increase burden to secure clean water. � Liaise with public water agencies to

aid swift supply of clean packaged

water to people during and in

post-disaster times.

� Lack of cleaner sanitation options. � Provide mobile toilet facilities

designated for women during

and in post-disaster periods.

Mobility constrains Human carriers and canoe. � Blocked drainage systems prevent

water from flowing easily.

� Clear waste from drainage systems.

� Improve on drainage maintenance.

Psychological trauma Prayer and reliance on

religious groups.

� Limited access to social assistance

from government, NGOs and civil society.

� Augment religious support with social safety nets.

� Empower and counsel women.

� Facilitate gender-sensitive disaster mitigation,

management, and recovery.

I. Ajibade et al. / Global Environmental Change 23 (2013) 1714–17251722

impacts, coping strategies, constraints and adaptation prioritiesfor low-income women are summarised in Table 2.

4.5. Rights-based approaches to gender and disaster-risk reduction

In view of disaster-risk reduction and long-term adaptation toclimate change and associated extreme weather events, low-income women in Badia were most concerned about their‘voicelessness’ and lack of power to influence government officialsin favour of the rehabilitation of their community, since the area isa slum and hence considered to be outside accepted urbanregulatory and planning systems. The social marginalisation of theBadia community as a whole contributes to other economic,political, and cultural burdens that women face in the location. Forinstance, with the inadequate state provision of basic services suchas pipe-borne water and health care services, women in the areawere concerned they may never escape poverty as they have totake greater financial responsibility to secure these services fortheir households. These social and gendered challenges have to beaddressed to prevent further impoverishment of an alreadyvulnerable social group. A human rights-based approach whichemphasizes empowerment and entitlement is one plausibleframework that can address low-income women’s vulnerabilityand powerlessness in normal and disaster contexts (Sen, 1981;Tschakert and Machado, 2012). There are three reasons why thisapproach works for women. One is that gender equality is central

to human rights, not ‘as an add-on’ but as a matter of social equalityand non-discrimination; secondly, human rights focuses on themost marginalised in society, and low-income women are a largeconstituency in this regard (United Nations, 2010); thirdly, humanrights places a positive obligation on the state to ensure that basicneeds including right to shelter and health are respected,protected, and fulfilled, even in a changing climate. This obligationextends to facilitating institutional and social change in ways thatrectify unequal vulnerability along gender, social, and economiclines. It also means that women’s issues should be addressed in thecontext of power relations between women and men and inbroader societal and developmental processes.

In practice therefore, a human rights-based approach requiresconcrete actions and plans towards empowering women. Anumber of authors have identified ways that women can beempowered. Heyzer (1992), for example, emphasizes the followingaspects: labour markets (equal wages with men, access to allsectors); social development (the provision of basic needs,housing, health and education); and relations within the house-hold (time-use, childcare, and the distribution of resources).Wieringa (1994) argues for economic restructuring (e.g., addres-sing the international financial relations which impact on womenand men differently); improving social relations (e.g., issues ofsexual and domestic violence); and removing structural limita-tions (e.g., legal inequalities between the sexes). Lastly, Moser(1989) calls for the promotion of women’s self-reliance and

I. Ajibade et al. / Global Environmental Change 23 (2013) 1714–1725 1723

internal strength. Taken together, these empowerment strategieswill not only lead to greater gender equity, but will also enhancelow-income women’s agency in building resilience againsteconomic and social burdens that increase their vulnerability toclimate change and related impacts.

5. Conclusion

This case study of urban women in a flooding disaster showsthat gender alone is not a significant determinant of vulnerabilityas women do not have common experiences, responsibilities,needs or constraints in disaster situations. What determinesdifferential vulnerability or resilience is the ‘intersectionality’ ofgender relations and gender roles with class, place, employmentstatus, and social entitlement such as health care. Findings fromthis study revealed that being middle or upper class in anenvironmentally conducive location effectively protects womenagainst the worst effects of gender biases and the impacts ofdisaster; while low socio-economic status combined with hazard-ous housing and environmental conditions can expose women togender-based discrimination and also increase their vulnerabilityto disaster impacts. This study makes a shift from a simplisticvulnerability assessment between women and men, to diagnosingthe drivers of unequal vulnerability among different groups ofwomen and to promoting resilience building through institutionaland social change. In the case study of the July 2011 flooding inLagos, this paper revealed that women who were already sociallyand economically marginalised suffered severely during the eventand also experienced greater difficulty with recovery due tolimited economic resources and social support. The intersection ofgender relations and gender roles with household structure,occupation, and access to health care, also created differentialvulnerability among women in the low-income group. Female-headed households, for example, were found to experience higherfood insecurity because they lacked a helping partner; pregnantwomen faced life-threatening problems due to a gendered healthpolicy that required spousal donation of blood; and petty tradersrecorded significant economic loss due to their attachment to thehome and the influence of weather on their businesses. Theseevidence-based findings suggest a need for disaster-risk reductionpolicy that takes into consideration the different economic, social,productive and reproductive roles played by women (Jungehul-sing, 2012). It also calls for improved sex and class disaggregateddata analysis of climate change impacts in order to identify anddirect need-specific resources to those most at risk.

Additionally, lessons from this study show that housing,healthcare, and a clean environment are a great priority forwomen especially low income women. Access to safe housing andsocial amenities such as clean water would lessen the physical andhealth risks that low-income women face and also help to improveoverall health, sanitation, and quality of life. Secondly, sharing thegendered responsibilities for child and family care would reducewomen’s emotional stress and workload in normal and disastertimes. Thirdly, granting low income women greater participationand political visibility in local and national disaster preparednessand climate change adaptation would enhance capacity buildingnecessary to promote women’s resilience against climate changeimpacts. Clearly, gender issues in disaster are complex and shapedby interacting processes including economic, ecological, cultural,institutional, and governance processes. It is crucial therefore todevelop sensitisation programmes to eliminate gender stereotypesthat create barriers for women in different spheres. As the climatechanges, exposure and risk will also change and may exacerbatepre-existing inequalities within and across gender. More researchon gender and climate change adaptation are therefore necessaryto enhance knowledge in this area, particularly in urban settings—

where majority of the human population are likely to be residing,in the next four or five decades.

Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the generous funding of theInternational Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the IRACCcities at risk project. Special thanks to Cartographer, K. Van-KerKoele, Department of Geography, Western University and toPaul Mkandawire (Institute of interdisciplinary studies, CarletonUniversity) for his comments.

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