Women and disaster

This guide describes best practices for clinical management of people who have been raped in emergency situations. It is intended for use by qualified health-care providers in developing protocols for the management of rape survivors in emergencies, taking into account available resources, materials, and drugs, and national policies and procedures. It can also be used in planning health-care services and training health-care providers. The guide includes detailed guidance on the clinical management of women, men and children who have been raped.

Reports on the double discrimination of gender and age that girls face, describing how this discrimination affects them during times of war.

Editorial on the health of women in war and crisis, in an issue of the journal devoted to this topic. All the abstracts in this issue are freely available online. A subscription is needed to see the full articles.

Describes the Reproductive Health Program of the Women's Refugee Commission. Links to several resources on reproductive health for women in crisis settings, including a factsheet that outlines the issues and possible responses.

Excerpt from the book What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race, and the State of the Nation discussing how women of color bear the brunt of compromised safety during a disaster and after.

Factsheet that explains why rapes often occur in the aftermath of natural disasters and other humanitarian crises.

Oxfam Briefing Note that explains why and how the 2004 Asian tsunami hit women harder than men. 

Describes how natural disasters affect women differently than men, and how disaster planning must fully involve women as well as men. 

Within the context of the 2010 Haitian earthquake, explains why women need different kinds of aid and contribute differently than men when responding to disaster.