"It makes a difference to be by yourself": how Beauce women's flood narratives bring light to unequal effects of climate change


Typhaine Leclerc, Université du Québec à Montréal

Disasters brought about by extreme weather events (EWE) such as heat waves, storms, floods, and droughts are often part of a broader pattern of adversity caused by poverty and social inequality, global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, or other disasters. As social conditions are a main determinant of disaster vulnerability, groups and individuals dealing with the most intense hazards impacts are those who already find themselves in unfavorable situations for reasons linked to social positionality (Chaplin et al., 2019; Hrabok et al., 2020). Research additionally shows that “disasters have historically been narrated from the perspective of men” (Rushton et al., 2020). Although research at the intersection of disaster management, consequences of climate change, and gender has multiplied in the last decades (Enarson et al., 2018), protagonists of stories told about disasters have not necessarily changed, and men’s voices continue to dominate media coverage and representations on the topic (Cox et Perry, 2011; Leikam, 2017). Narrative research makes it possible to better document and disseminate the psychosocial consequences of EWE on a diversity of affected people and, ultimately, to support their recovery in a more equitable way. The research focuses on the psychosocial impacts of river Chaudière floods on women in Beauce (QC), and the stories they tell about what they lived through. Seventeen women who have been subjected to one or more flooding events in Beauce participated in semi-structured interviews during which they were invited to share stories of their experience and recovery process. A feminist narrative framework guided analysis, allowing us to identify impacts of the floods on their wellbeing and functioning at different points in time and strategies levied for recovery. This presentation will offer an overview of participants’ experiences of floods and recovery process. Both consequences and resources to face EWEs and recover depend on the material constraints that mark women’s existence, the social expectations they face, and their self-perceptions. Various avenues through which participants have made sense of their experience at different stages of the flood and recovery period will be examined through a gendered lens. The narrative research approach we adopted makes it possible to delve into participants’ embodied experiences of flooding and its psychosocial consequences on women. In offering space for a diversity of EWE accounts, this research makes the differentiated effects of these events more tangible. Considering a greater diversity of experiences during and after disasters could promote more equitable care for those affected in the short, medium, and long term.

Non-presenting authors: Lily Lessard, UQAR; Johanne Saint-Charles, UQAM

This paper will be presented at the following session: