Operadores Cerradura D´ ebilmente He reditarios e Idempotentes

Gender divisions in Fiji are prominent, as they are an integral part of traditional culture. Men and women have separate and clearly identified roles, and in traditional villages, by and large, those differentiations are respected and adhered to, disaster or not.

On the island, most people I spoke to stayed well within the confines of those specified gender roles, and it was difficult, especially at first, to find anyone who would express alternative opinions. It was generally agreed that after a disaster, men are responsible for cleaning up the village, repairing houses, and re-planting crops and women are responsible for cleaning up the home, cooking, and caring for the children. This closely reflects the roles in daily life in a traditional village. Following on from this, most people also agreed that this translated into men experiencing greater stress after a cyclone, having more responsibilities:

He thinks that men are more reliable and they are responsible to make, try and rehabilitate them, the community and the family. So women are more likely to just look after the kids and cook. But for the building houses, men are mostly responsible to do that kind of work (Fiji, male villager, aged 35-45)

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Yes, more stressful for men than women because the men are responsible for repairing things and getting things to eat for the family, while the ladies just stay at home and look after the kids and do the cooking (Fiji, male

villager, aged 46-59).

The only problem with this expressed view is that it was not completely compatible with the daily routines I witnessed on the island. Women were usually involved in fishing, which plays a major role in the provision of food, including after a cyclone. Women also helped on the plantations. Men rarely crossed into women’s traditional roles, although I did see this when women were injured by stingrays while fishing and their husbands helped with the cooking for the next day or so. This blurring of traditional role boundaries was explained to me:

If they (men) have the late night with the kava bowl then the women will just have to do the planting…they do all the housework, they do the plantations, they go fishing. While men can't come in and clean the house. Everything they do is just try to do the repair and the plantations. For them, they can’t do all (Fiji, female villager, aged 35-45 years).

One of the younger villagers I interviewed thought that in a disaster situation, traditional gender roles should be irrelevant:

Men and women have to work together. Never mind that's not your role. You have to help that one, help your husband. Cleaning up, building up, replanting. We have

to work together (Fiji, female villager, aged 35-45 years).

In my later interviews, when the community seemed more comfortable and trusting of me, issues around the gender roles started to emerge, particularly from younger women:

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Very very different. The workload is the women's.

Because the ladies, when we wake up in the morning, we start, until at night. But the men, no. One or two working one day, then have a rest. If they want to, otherwise, nobody can force them. You can't give orders to them, but they can give orders to us…Because the children are there, no mother will want to see her own children crying, wanting to eat. But for the men, they can go with it - go to your Mum. For Fijians, it happens. Like the load is given to the mother, Mum has to do everything. That is one thing too I have experienced in this village. Like the women you see, going out to the plantation, going to the sea, going to get firewood. Not just in the cyclone season, but it's their daily routine. And when the men sit and drink kava in the night, they will just be sleeping the next day. Sleep the whole day. Who does the work is just the mother. It's their daily routine (Fiji, female villager, aged 35-45 years).

It’s mainly to women, the workload. Men they just come, they say things and they go away. We are the tools. In the morning, from morning they are starting until late at night (Fiji, female villager, aged 35-45 years).

In the stresses of the aftermath of a disaster, when there is devastation all around, but the need for food and shelter do not wait, inevitably tensions will rise and the conditions for conflict are present. There were two contrasting examples provided to me of when such conflict arises. Firstly, in the organisation and co-ordination of the clean-up and repairs to the village:

Well, most of all it (conflict) is just the men. Because after that there is a meeting, whatever we have to do this, we have to do that, that house has to be replaced, so like women are just following them. So most of the ideas are just amongst the men, and the differences are just

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With the traditional role of women being passive and submissive, they are not as involved in the decision making processes within the village. The men

“are the ones masterminding everything” (Fiji, female villager, aged 60+).

Consequently, they are less likely to be involved in any conflicts arising through those processes. However, the home is the domain of women, and it is there that conflicts among women arise:

Because the hurricane, no houses left. But in that time, you can stay, live together. But we used to do temporary houses very fast. Men can stay together, women can't. Understand?…for one week, two weeks. Women can’t…Fijian men can stay together, just talanoa

(talking), laughing together. Women can't, just a short

time…Sometimes the women, fight about how things

should be done. You have to understand about that (Fiji,

male villager, aged 46-59 years).

The gender roles did not always hold however, during the trauma of the disaster event. Stereotypically, men would be the strong ones, and most responses from the communities were steadfastly consistent with that picture. One woman in Fiji though, described how her husband was unable to deal with the stress and pressure during the cyclone, leaving her responsible for the safety of their children:

I ask the torch to my husband, you give the torch. That one there, can’t hold himself. He was shivering like this, my husband…he was too scared. And me no…me was not so scared like that one. He was lying like this and I asked him, give the torch to me, I want to see the roof…(Interviewer: you were trying not to be scared?) Yes, because of the kids. Because I was responsible for my husband to take care of us. That one there was shivering and too scared. I tell him not to be scared because of those kids there. I call him, hey, what’s wrong with you? And he can’t talk. I try my best to take

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three years old. I was telling him, wrap him in the blanket, and I run to that house up there. That one there take only one pillow and one blanket, and run up there, my husband. He was so scared…I told them - you run. You have to find your way there. You run. But that part there was so bushy and they needed the torch there like

that. The torch that my husband was taking first (Fiji,

female villager, aged 35-45 years).

Aid organisation representatives talked about other ways in which the traditional gender divide impacts upon women. For example, with damage assessment teams being male only, certain topics are taboo for women, which may mean that certain needs are not attended to. You cannot ask for underwear if you are not supposed to talk to a man about not having any. There were reports that in some damage assessments, only male-headed households are recognised, which makes assessing support and aid extremely difficult for female-headed households. The responsibility women take for disaster risk management is sometimes not recognised, even though with traditional gender roles, it is women in Fiji who are most often closest to the home. These types of issues for women in disasters have been recognised worldwide (Heckenberg and Johnston, 2012).

Gender impacts discussed in Tonga were from a slightly different

perspective. The community in Tonga recently had an aid organisation project on diversifying income implemented in Falemea village. This led to more reliable incomes, and an understanding that sharing the load of work reduces the pressure on everyone. For example, one or two boats will fish for the entire community when there is a large school going past. When the boats arrive back at shore, villagers (men and women alike) will all help in getting the fish out of the nets. The fish are then divided amongst those who participated. Because the number of people is what’s counted, both men and women help. However, on a day to day basis, roles are clearly defined for men and for women.

Most of the income in the Tongan villages came from selling mats that are woven from pandanus leaves. This is a real industry in those villages, with most women spending all day weaving. Gender issues become apparent after a

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cyclone because the pandanus plants are destroyed and can take six to nine months to re-grow. During this time, money is a real concern within the village, and men must try to take over the income earning role, selling fish at the markets. In Fiji, most of the income is derived this way, and once the seas are calm enough, fishing can re-commence fairly quickly. But in the Tongan villages, it seems that the source of income is more severely disrupted.

Gender issues are complex in Fiji and Tonga, and have a variety of impacts not only within communities, but for aid organisations also. Aid organisations in both countries spoke of the difficulty in meeting the conditions of donors for female representation on village committees for projects. Some donors make such representation a condition of the project and the aid organisation is left to convince them that a committee of all men is better than no committee at all in communities where having even one female representative is a huge step forward:

That’s the other thing we face is the international norms of gender and equality. When you get to community level, how you play this is really the difference between your project succeeding and not succeeding. At the other level, the donors and the Australian office, they can’t understand that. When we say ‘oh no, the community said no women’…’no, no, no, you have to have women’. But it’s better having a committee of all men than no committee at all and then something happens. I think in one way it’s been a big push towards that gender

equality thing in as many committees as we have, to have

a women representative and a youth representative (Fiji,

aid organisation representative).

The extent to which traditional gender role boundaries may be blurred will affect preparation for and response to cyclones and climate change impacts, in terms of both resources and ideas available. Where only men are involved in decision-making, half the population’s ideas and efforts are at risk of being wasted opportunities.

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