Women, equity and social reproduction: Retheorising ‘PPRR’ through a gendered lens

It has been argued that too much of our disaster risk analysis is overly focussed on hazards at the expense of processes of social organisation, including gender. In advancing a less myopic research agenda, our qualitative research with women undertaking ‘disaster recovery’ work in Aotearoa New Zealand highlights important, but often overlooked, distinctions between inequality and inequity. This work also shows the importance of women’s social reproduction work as a critical training ground for meta-competencies (empathy, multi-tasking and what we call ‘horizontal efficiency’) well-suited for the emerging reframing of ‘disasters’ as complex, cascading and compounding. This reframing suggests we shift attention towards systemic socio-political and ideological drivers of precarity and opportunity so as to re-theorise and challenge neat distinctions between prevention, preparedness, response and recovery (PPRR). An implication for practice is to learn from the way these women undertook their multifaceted social reproductive work which blended domestic, informal and formal spheres, and was often crisis-driven even in ‘peacetime’. We conclude with some thoughts on the ways the skills learned through social reproduction labour are more broadly appropriate for our ‘curvy, wonky world’. • Emphasises important distinctions between gender inequality and inequity. • Illustrates the importance of women’s social reproduction work as a critical training ground for meta-competencies (empathy, multi-tasking, and ‘horizontal efficiency’. • These meta-competencies are appropriate for the emerging reframing of ‘disasters’ away from PPRR, towards complex, cascading and compounding. • Skills learned through women’s social reproduction labour may be broadly appropriate for our ‘curvy, wonky world’.