Women, men and children as disaster survivors. © GDN 2007

More about the beginnings and ‘vision’ of GDN

The Gender and Disaster Network is an educational project initiated by women and men interested in gender relations in disaster contexts. It emerged from an early morning meeting during the July 1997 Natural Hazards Research and Applications Center workshop in Denver, Colorado. Who were the founding members? If you were there that morning and don’t mind being listed on the website, please email your name to gdn@gdnonline.org.

We aim to utilise the Internet and other forms of new media in support of a global network of researchers and practitioners while recognising that communications technology is not fully accessible and that we must try to work in many languages and contexts.

Please visit this link to see our ideas for further developing the Network.

Broadly stated, our goals are to:

-document and analyze women's and men's experiences before, during, and after disaster, situating gender relations in broad political, economic, historical, and cultural context

- work across disciplinary and organizational boundaries in support of collaborative research and applied projects

- foster information sharing and resource building among network members build and sustain an active international community of scholars and activists

Toward this end, we will continue to develop and maintain the Gender and Disaster Network website as an international forum for discussion, networking, and information exchange. Our site is currently maintained by the GDN Web Coordinator (previously managed by Dr. Maureen Fordham taking over from Nicole Dash at the International Hurricane Center, Florida International University) at Northumbria University, School of Applied Sciences. However, the content will be generated by the Network members and Northumbria University is not responsible for the material supplied by GDN members.

The GDN community has a vibrant discussion list, managed by the UNISDR (Ana Cristina Thorlund taking over from Sudha Arlikatti at Texas A&M University and before that, Niki Dash and Betty Hearn Morrow at Florida International University).

We wish to use this website in the broadest way possible. If you have suggestions for how it could be made better, please email us at gdn@gdnonline.org.

The Gender and Disaster Network is open to all those sharing its goals. Please complete the registration information here.