Women's experience of violence in the aftermath of the Black Saturday bushfires
Parkinson, Debra
Women's experience of violence in the aftermath of the Black Saturday bushfires A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University Debra Parkinson - 2014 - electronic document; available online
PhD, Monash University
This thesis documents the first Australian research to interview women about their experiences of domestic violence after catastrophic disaster. As such research is rare in developed countries, it addresses a gap in the disaster literature. Interviews with 30 women in two shires in Victoria confirmed that domestic violence increased following the Black Saturday bushfires on 7th February, 2009. The scant research that exists internationally indicates that not only is the notion of "women and children first" a myth, but that women are disproportionally affected by disasters primarily as a result of their poverty relative to men and prescribed gender roles. This research found that women experiencing increased male violence were silenced in preference of supporting suffering men – men who had been heroes in the fires or were traumatised or unemployed as a result of the disaster. The silencing was evident in the lack of statistics on domestic violence in the aftermath of Black Saturday, the neglect of this issue in recovery and reconstruction operations, and the responses to women's reports of violence against them by legal, community and health professionals. (from the author's abstract). Record #4702
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
GENDER
INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE
MASCULINITY
NATURAL DISASTERS
THESES
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
AUSTRALIA
VICTORIA
Women's experience of violence in the aftermath of the Black Saturday bushfires A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University Debra Parkinson - 2014 - electronic document; available online
PhD, Monash University
This thesis documents the first Australian research to interview women about their experiences of domestic violence after catastrophic disaster. As such research is rare in developed countries, it addresses a gap in the disaster literature. Interviews with 30 women in two shires in Victoria confirmed that domestic violence increased following the Black Saturday bushfires on 7th February, 2009. The scant research that exists internationally indicates that not only is the notion of "women and children first" a myth, but that women are disproportionally affected by disasters primarily as a result of their poverty relative to men and prescribed gender roles. This research found that women experiencing increased male violence were silenced in preference of supporting suffering men – men who had been heroes in the fires or were traumatised or unemployed as a result of the disaster. The silencing was evident in the lack of statistics on domestic violence in the aftermath of Black Saturday, the neglect of this issue in recovery and reconstruction operations, and the responses to women's reports of violence against them by legal, community and health professionals. (from the author's abstract). Record #4702
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
GENDER
INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE
MASCULINITY
NATURAL DISASTERS
THESES
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
AUSTRALIA
VICTORIA