Natural Disasters, Gender and Handicrafts

Using original post-disaster household survey data gathered in rural Fiji, this article explores the disaster–gender nexus. Female-headed households are disadvantaged, not because of bias against them in disaster damage or relief, but because of a newly emerging gendered division of labour for dwelling rehabilitation that tightens their constraints on intra-household labour allocation. Female-headed households with damaged dwellings resort to female labour activities connected with informal risk sharing – augmenting production of handicrafts for kava rituals in exchange for male-labour help. Female-headed households without male-adult members resort to such activities more than those with them, because of their distinctly different decision-making processes.