I thought the article was well reasoned, and was both very interesting and informative (thank you to the author!). I wonder how the huge aid industry that was established in tsunami-affected areas took this reality into account when designing aid and development programs for these communities. And how this aid has alleviated or compounded the effect of the tsunami for women (and men)- that would make for another interesting article.

Surely there are a whole range of complex determinants on disaster mortality. The writer made some good points but on the whole - and I've noticed this a lot in OLO - there are some very dodgy use of statistics.

Survival rates are dependent not only on culture but speed of rescue, condition of infrastructure, health conditions of individuals before the 'event'. Who ever mentioned age made a good point. The older will almost certainly die before younger, fitter people.

Some might not like this but in a major 'event' such as a tornado or earthquake, a man who is 36 who is standing next to a woman of 36 (taking that they are reasonably fit) have exactly the same chances of survival. Whether they co-operate to survive is another matter.

If they co-operate their chances of survival dramatically increase.

I fear we’re asking the wrong questions when we ask “why women are more affected by climate change than men”. It is only when we remove red herrings (such as “by climate change”), can we ever hope to appreciate the scope of the problem.

If men cannot statistically die in the same numbers in each age group, and under the same circumstances (as judged by our female researches), it proves gender inequity. Even if these statistical anomalies were to be successfully bred out of us, new criteria would surely emerge to justify further extortion.

Seems gender equality is only deliverable to women by men. And if men can be deemed incapable of either that, or credibly behaving like women, there should be a penis tax, right?

Kellie ,

Of course I'm quite happy being a man ,but I sure would like to buy those genes at retirement that give you girls that extra eight or ten years of life in our society.

They do get a rough deal in many countries that could be overcome by education.

This education just might also help limit climate change long term, providing "economic growth " doesn't equal unmanaged consumption.

cheryl, I agree the writer did make some good points

Last year I had the pleasure of meeting someone who was part of a task force to visit places like Aceh after the aid agencies had left. One significant point was that whilst the aid agencies had really marked their prescence with large signs, the names of the villages were in the fine print.

Under the name of providing aid, lots of useless products were sent to these places and the aid agencies made big noises about how they were saving people and once the noise died down, the aid agencies gradually faded away.

Does anyone recall the big news about human trafficking, well read the following link.
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/earticle/4389/

"develop a gender strategy, invest in gender-specific climate change research and establish a system for the use of gender-sensitive indicators and criteria for governments to use in national reporting"

"analyse and identify gender-specific impacts and protection measures related to floods, droughts, heatwaves, diseases, and other environmental changes and disasters;"

Eeva Sodhi in "Manufacturing research"
http://web.archive.org/web/20050308115735/www.nojustice.info/Research/ManufacturingResearch.htm
"What is interesting is that, after potential contractors have been told that they are to treat men and women differently, they are reminded that a double standard"

"Since 1998, Canadian researchers have been able to get funding only if they comply with the following guidelines (note that "gender based analysis"
"Collecting Information for Propaganda is not Research"

so what the author is proposing of this article is proposing is collecting information for propaganda and she is a lawyer.

There is nothing wrong with providing aid to meet the needs of a specific group unless, aid is only provided to that specific group and no aid is provided to other groups who do not meet the criteria in natural disasters.

Vanilla,

'Have you guys ever counted the number of men who post on articles about women..'

No. But have you ever counted the amount of feminist articles compared with articles discussing men's issues on OLO? We have recently had Australia Day cringe (Nationalism) and Corey Worthington (Cult of Celebrity) and now natural disasters, all contorted to be somehow feminist issues.

'Is your goal that there be no research about women?' No. My goal is equality in research topics. And equity in publicity of men's and women's issues. Women's issues and research dominate.

'On September 11, the ratio of men to women who died was 3:1. Doesn't *that* interest you?'
Not really to be honest. It's not relevant. I don't remember it getting any publicity or being considered news worthy either.

'What does it say about firemen, about bravery?'
I dunno. That women have been denied the opportunity to be firemen, and the patriachy doesn't respect women enough to put them in danger or let them be heros the same as men. That would be the angle I would expect an OLO writer to come up with.

'It doesn't mean women's deaths are more tragic than men's deaths. Why are you making it into a competition?'

The writer states she was 'appalled at what it showed'. Appalled that more women were dying than men. Nobody is ever appalled, and it isn't worthy of attention if the opposite situation is the caes.

The first paragraph of the article is an extremely transparent attempt to justify the research. I'd bet my house if she found early on that more men died, she would have looked for another topic that was more interesting to her. i.e. The perpetuation of women as victims.

See I don't object to a lot of the goals of feminism, just the bias. It's the PR war men have lost. When people are constantly told that women are disadvantaged and that this situation must be rectified, it easily follows that any action advancing women ought to be praised and any action advancing men threatens to widen this presumed gulf.