Men and women in Boston learn about terrorism differently: gendering the urban values–vulnerability nexus

ABSTRACT

This paper expands the values-vulnerability nexus for studying urban vulnerability to terrorism. Gender is among the most salient social structures affecting a person’s interpretation of risk, and urban geographers have demonstrated that gender also deeply affects the experience of urban life. However, the values that shape urban vulnerability to terrorism have been conceptualized more broadly, usually focusing on the underpinning economic organization of cities that terrorists exploit rather than on concepts such as gender. As a result, the role of gender in understanding societal responses to terrorism—specifically risk perception and preparedness—is underdeveloped, including in the 2008 US National Survey of Disaster and Preparedness, which sought to understand Americans’ responses to terrorism. This paper outlines a gender values–vulnerability nexus for studying terrorism. Using interview data from Boston, Massachusetts conducted before and after the 15 April 2013 Boston Marathon attacks, I demonstrate that gender deeply affected how Bostonians learned about and responded to terrorism. The gender values–vulnerability nexus explores the role of gendered political, social, economic, and geographical dimensions in urban vulnerability to terrorism. The role of gender has the potential to substantially increase vulnerability for urban populations, particularly given gender-similar social networks and urban contexts that continue to yield different experiences for men and women. The implications of these findings may signal challenges for urban emergency managers, public safety officials, and ordinary people in American cities.

KEYWORDS:

• Terrorism
• Boston
• gender
• risk perception

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. There are many definitions of terrorism. For the purpose of this paper, terrorism is defined as: (1) the use or threat of use of violence that (2) employs a political dynamic or engages a political message that is (3) explicitly disengaged from humanitarian rules, and (4) aims to induce fear in the victim. (5) Publicity is an essential part of terrorism (Crenshaw, 1995, Laqueur, 1987; Laqueur, 1996).

2. See the Department of Homeland Security’s 2010 Homeland Security Grant Program, Guidance and Application Kit. Last accessed 27 October 2014 at: http://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/20130726-1750-25045-7997/fy_2010_hsgp_guidance_and_application_kit.pdf. Boston, Massachusetts is listed as among the US metro areas with the highest risk of experiencing terrorism.

3. See the National Capital Planning Commission’s Urban Design and Security Plan. Last accessed 27 October 2014 at: http://www.ncpc.gov/DocumentDepot/Publications/SecurityPlans/NCUDSP/UDSP_Brochure.pdf.

4. As part of this project, I also interviewed public safety officials in the Boston area. I did this to learn about any programs that they had initiated for the public, which may have then influenced what my respondents would discuss with me in the interviews. The public safety officials indicated that several communications, such as direct mailing with information on how to prepare for terrorism, had been initiated.

5. Local knowledge is not necessarily bad in the contexts of terrorism (Pain, 2008). It becomes problematic if the local networks are deprived of information that public emergency managers seek to foster to improve security outcomes for people. Further, given the rise in single-person households—now roughly one-third of American households (Klinenberg, 2012)—it is a real possibility that at least some women and men will have gender-similar networks, thereby losing the link to men’s relatively richer information.

6. All percentages of respondent answers discussed in the analysis section were calculated using the initial sample of 93 interviewees.