Women in disasters – In reel and real lives

Written By Nitesh Lohan and Sneha Krishnan

By Nitesh Lohan and Sneha Krishnan

Indian history is filled with several examples of women leading from the front in times of crises – protecting their families, their children and sometimes entire communities. For instance: Queen Lakshmi Bai, also known as “Rani of Jhansi” fought against the British in the 1850s to save her kingdom and became an icon in the history of India. Mother Teresa, another beacon in recent times had devoted her entire life to caring for the destitute and dying in the slums of Calcutta (currently known as Kolkata) in Eastern India. These two female icons show different sides of humanity, if a mother can take care of others like her own then a mother can also fight against her enemies to save her own people. 

But still, females are considered the vulnerable sections of society when any disaster strikes. We forget that there are lots of female role models who created history by leading different movements. In 1973, peasant women in Northern India started the “Chipko Movement”. It was a non-violent movement aimed at the protection and conservation of trees. This movement is still commemorated by ecofeminists and environmentalists for the collective mobilization of women to preserve their forests from being cut down by a commercial sports manufacturer.  This resistance brought about a change in society’s attitudes towards women’s status in their own community.[1]  This emerged to be the “first stirrings” of women's environmental defense that was acknowledged at the United Nations 1985 conference in Nairobi. During the Chipko movement, women's role in planetary protection became clearly articulated in November 1991, when the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) organized the World Women's Congress for a Healthy Planet in Miami, Florida. [2]

In the past two years, India’s female front-line health workers[3] played a very important role during COVID-19 by not only raising awareness and providing information to the rural areas but they also took preventive actions to mitigate the risk. But still, females had to face gender inequalities. They provide food for the family but sleep on empty stomachs sometimes. Even in some African countries, like South Sudan they didn't get proper WASH and sanitation facilities. If we need to improve the situation of the females we need to involve them in decision-making process.  

It is interesting to explore how women are represented in disaster or crises films. There are few movies that inspire and illustrate the different sides of women’s life and what they can achieve. For instance: Sandra Bullock’s character Annie Porter in the movies ‘Speed’ and ‘Speed 2: Cruise Control’ where she is saving the passengers from the bomb explosion. On Twitter, we invited a discussion on films centering on a female character in any disasters and emergencies. People were talking about different movies related to disasters and lots of people suggested so many interesting movies. Donna (@Donna12May) suggested, “Meryl Streep in The River Wild”,   Dr. Samantha Montano (@SamLMontano) suggested “Beasts of the Southern Wild”, Ben Holder (@apiari) “Deep Impact”, Jay Roorbach (@jarthree) suggested, “Bridget Moynihan as the doctor in The Sum of All Fears”, Carole H. Therrien (@CaroleHTherrien) suggested, “Twister”, RJ Shastri (@Mocking_RJ) suggested, “Wenday and Lucy, Firaaq, A Rifle and A Bag, Prayers for the Stolen”, Angela Catalano (@AngelaunderH20) suggested, “Jurassic Park, Contagion, Volcano, Annihilation, The Meg”. [4] 

This thread shows different movies based on disasters and emergencies and the ways females handle the situation. To make the disaster related movies interesting widespread devastation, action scenes, survival, and romantic story lines were commonly used. Not only do these films provide a common understanding of disasters but also increase our mutual understanding of survival and perceptions of real life risk. There is a list attracted below for you better understanding of disaster and emergency related movies.

List of the movies

Nitesh Lohan and Sneha Krishnan
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