Gender, development and disasters

Disaster research owes a lot to development studies and yet the debt is often not acknowledged. In this scholarly but accessible book by Sarah Bradshaw, we see a very effective linking of gender, disaster and development that will be of value to academics and practitioners working in and across all these domains. Maureen Fordham, University of Northumbria, UKBringing gender into the foreground in both development and disaster discourse, the author challenges received wisdom and offers cautionary notes about reinforcing inequalities through feminized disaster interventions. The book is an outstanding platform for fundamental change in how we think about and act toward gender in disaster contexts, leaving readers cautiously optimistic. This is one for the top shelf a book we have been waiting for and must put to use. Elaine Enarson, founder, Gender and Disaster Resilience AllianceOnce in a while a book is published which offers an empirically and theoretically informed analysis of an under-studied topic which helps to carve out a new field of enquiry. Such is the case with Dr Sarah Bradshaws breathtakingly detailed, richly first-hand informed, and incisive, account of the frequently paradoxical co-option of women into the analysis and practice of "disaster" in developing economies. Bradshaw's eminently comprehensive, well-substantiated, perceptive and sensitive treatment of the "A to Z" of gender and "disaster" in developing country contexts constitutes a 21st century volume which will be a definitive benchmark for scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and feminist activists at a world scale. Sylvia Chant, London School of Economics, UKThe need to disaster proof development is increasingly recognised by development agencies, as is the need to engender both development and disaster response. This unique book explores what these processes mean for development and disasters in practice.