Natural Disasters, Gender and Handicrafts

Abstract

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.

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank my field team – Jonati Torocake, Viliame Manavure, Viliame Lomaloma, Maria Torocake, and Anaseini Savuiwasa – for their advice, enthusiasm, and exceptional efforts on behalf of this project. Special thanks are owed to the Fijians of the region who so willingly participated in the survey. Xiaowen Mo undertook the laborious task of data entry and cleaning. Cakaudrove and Macuata Provincial Offices in Fiji offered valuable institutional support for this project. This article has benefited significantly from the comments and suggestions of Michael Bennett, Keijiro Otsuka, and conference and seminar participants on earlier versions of this work presented to the World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists, the FASID Hakone Conference, Beijing University, Kobe University, and University of Tsukuba. This research has been made possible through support provided by the Sumitomo Foundation, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan. Any errors of interpretation are solely the author's responsibility.

Notes

Almost all households employ traditional cropping practices (using no mechanised equipment or animal traction and limited purchased inputs) to produce taro, cassava, coconut, and kava plant, and engage in artisanal fishing using lines and hooks, simple spear guns, or rudimentary nets. Enumerators asked questions about the production of major crops and the catch of finfish and other marine products in the past one month, and then monthly production a year before, in comparison with the latest figures. Virtually all land is communally owned and by law cannot be sold. The disposition of fishing capital (privately owned) and the transfer of usufruct of land after the cyclone were non-existent; indeed, asset holdings changed very little over the previous year. Casual wage labour – a focus of previous studies on the ex-post labour supply – was rare.

At the country level, total cyclone damage was estimated at F$104 million, of which residential damage was F$22 million and crop damage was F$40 million, and the total cost of food rations was 20 times that of tarpaulins (National Disaster Management Office, 2003).

Although some craftswomen sell their products in local markets and small resort hotels for tourists (values of handicraft gifts were imputed from sales data), gift production was much more common and greater than sales (approximately two times and five times, respectively). Takasaki (2011a) examines the insurance roles of handicraft sales as well as fishing.

The only exception is that female adults' age positively affects the amount of handicrafts produced in periods 1, 2, and 4 (and participation in periods 1 and 4). This indicates older women's major role in kava rituals because of their seniority, good craft skills, and low opportunity costs of labour. Female adults' age is similar between female-headed households with and without male-adult members.