Flood-related violence against women
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Does earning money empower women? Evidence from India
This study investigates the relationship between women’s earnings and empowerment in India, focusing on married women aged 15-49. Utilizing data from the Indian DHS (2019–21), the research employs Bayesian statistical analyses to explore how earning money influences women’s empowerment in areas like financial and bodily autonomy, marital rights, attitudes towards intimate partner violence, and peer recognition. The study reveals that while earning money enhances women’s financial and bodily autonomy, decision-making capacity, and societal recognition, it simultaneously restricts their marital rights, degrades intimate partner relations, and increases the risk of domestic violence. The findings contribute to the discourse on gender equality, offering empirical insights into the complexities of women’s empowerment in India. This research has practical implications for policymakers, NGOs, and stakeholders working towards women’s empowerment, providing a deeper understanding of the varied impact of women’s economic contributions in India’s socio-cultural context.
Social disparities in neighborhood flood exposure in 44,698 urban neighborhoods in Latin America
Climate change is expected to greatly increase exposure to flooding, particularly among urban populations in low- and middle-income countries. Here we used daily flood data (2000–2018) to describe socioeconomic disparities in flooding on the basis of neighborhood educational attainment, comparing disparities across and within cities. We used multilevel models to examine disparities in area flooding by city- and neighborhood-level factors, including 44,698 neighborhoods in 276 cities from eight countries with a total of 223 million residents and 117 distinct flood events. One in 4 of residents of neighborhoods in the lowest quintile of educational attainment were exposed to flooding, compared with 1 in 20 residents of neighborhoods in the highest quintile of educational attainment. Neighborhoods experiencing more flooding included those with lower educational attainment, that were coastal, less dense, further from the city center and greener, and that had steeper slopes. We show large social disparities in neighborhood flooding within Latin American cities. Policymakers must prioritize flood adaptation and recovery efforts in neighborhoods with lower socioeconomic status.
What makes a man unmanly? The global concept of ‘unmanliness’
This paper presents the findings of a multi-national study that led to the development of a new analytical framework in masculinity research—the Global Concept of ‘Unmanliness’ (GCU). Drawing on three key theories—hegemonic masculinity, precarious manhood and masculinity threat, and emasculation—we conducted an innovative study across 15 countries (selected from an initial pool of 62) to examine cultural perceptions of ‘unmanliness.’ Participants provided open-ended responses to identify traits and behaviors considered unmanly within their cultural contexts. By analyzing common themes expressed by young men, we propose the Global Concept of ‘Unmanliness’ as a framework for understanding how societies define and enforce masculinity norms. Furthermore, comparing these findings with the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) revealed a key distinction in how ‘unmanliness’ is characterized across different levels of gender emancipation. In countries with high GGGI rankings (e.g., Norway, Ireland, Germany), ‘unmanliness’ is more often associated with physical traits and behaviors linked to femininity (e.g., clothing, makeup). Conversely, in countries with low GGGI rankings (e.g., Pakistan, Morocco, Nigeria), it is more commonly defined by acts such as violence against women. Our study highlights how cultural and structural gender dynamics shape the boundaries of masculinity and offers a new lens for cross-cultural research on gender norms.
A severe local flood and social events show a similar impact on human mobility
While a social event, such as a concert or a food festival, is a common experience to people, a natural disaster is experienced by a fewer individuals. The ordinary and common ground experience of social events could be, therefore, used to better understand the complex impacts of uncommon, but devastating natural events on society, such as floods. Based on this idea, we present a comparison — in terms of human mobility — between an extreme local flood that occurred in 2017 in Switzerland, and social events which took place in the same region, in the weeks before and after the inundation. Using mobile phone location data, we show that the severe local flood and social events have a similar impact on human mobility, both at the national scale and at a local scale. At the national level, we found a small difference between the distributions of visitors and their travelled distances among the several weeks in which the events took place. At the local level, instead, we detected the anomalies (in time series) in the number of people travelling each road and railway, and we found that the distributions of anomalies, and of their clusters, are comparable between the flood and the social events. Hence, our findings suggest that the knowledge on ubiquitous social events can be employed to characterise the impacts of rare natural disasters on human mobility. The proposed methods at the local level can thus be used to analyse the disturbances in complex spatial networks and, in general, as complementary approaches for the analyses of complex systems.
Mapping the patriarchy in conservation
It is essential to ensure the effectiveness of current conservation efforts to meet the interconnected crises of biodiversity loss, habitat degradation, and climate change. In this article, we discuss one aspect that undermines conservation’s effectiveness while at the same time being underexplored in the academic and political discourse on conservation: patriarchal norms and structures. We argue that these norms and structures, which promote male supremacy and inequality, are central to driving environmental destruction. Many conservation programs unintentionally reinforce patriarchal thinking, thereby undermining their effectiveness. We provide examples of how patriarchy influences conservation, such as the precarious position of women (Working Conditions for Women in Conservation), the treatment of animals (Violence against animals), the suppression of particular forms of knowledge (Science and knowledge production), militarization trends in conservation (Securitization and militarization of conservation enforcement), and the financialization of nature (The monetary valuation of nature). We conclude that patriarchal norms and structures within conservation must be questioned and dismantled to make conservation more effective and just.
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