How to encourage more female staff in disaster response

This is the second article in a two-piece series looking at the impact of gender balance in humanitarian surge staff and the challenges women and girls face when responding to a disaster. When a disaster strikes, surge staff are the first ones deployed to assess and implement what is most needed on the ground. While disasters can disproportionately affect women, they only make up 40 percent of surge staff according to research report conducted by ActionAid and CARE International last year. In particular regions, this can be significantly lower. For example, only 27 percent of surge staff deployed in Pakistan are female. A more gender-balanced staff could help response efforts be more inclusive for those affected and could help reduce incidents of sexual abuse in disaster response. Kathleen O’Brien, surge capacity coordinator of CARE International, stresses, “in the communities we serve, women’s organizations and individual women are already playing a key role as frontline responders for those affected by crisis. Surge capacity of international humanitarian organizations has to reflect this reality to help make connections between local female capacity and the international response. There’s never been a more important time to be a part of it.” But for female staff, the challenges are often greater than they are for men. Personal safety and security is a key concern that has become widely talked about with the recent revelations surrounding Oxfam and the #AidToo movement. Other issues raised by female staff were around patronizing and sexist behavior, personal hygiene in the field, and relationships and child care — which can all deter women from surging. ActionAid and CARE International found there are seven key concerns holding women back from surging. Devex spoke with two of the report’s authors to gain a deeper insight into the issues and what more can be done to encourage women to surge. 1. Personal safety and security “Personal safety and security … are definite things that they [women] struggle with … much more than men,” explains Sonya Ruparel, deputy humanitarian director of ActionAid. Female surge staff reported feeling more vulnerable to gender-based violence and studies have shown incidents of sexual assault often increase in the aftermath of a disaster. How to deal with it: One key thing to make women feel safer is to put relevant safety and security policies in place. ActionAid’s deployment policies include being debriefed on security and protection from sexual exploitation and abuse. Debriefings should be given before staff are deployed and ideally be led by another woman, to create a comfortable atmosphere where staff can openly ask questions and raise concerns. Ruparel also explained how just having policies isn’t enough: They need to be known and if staff witness any incident of sexual harassment or abuse then they need to be encouraged to report it. She advocates before every deployment that staff are “re-sent all the policies, that they reread them, that they reconfirm that they’ve read them. Because then they will know how to report, and they’ll also understand the behaviors that they should be expecting to portray.” O’Brien also advises men to, “[talk] about gender in safety and security briefings (or have a knowledgeable woman give the briefing)” to support women. The report found that, at times, women didn’t want to bring up security concerns — along with other concerns — in case it made them appear “weak”. 2. Confidence and skills “[S]ometimes when I deploy women, I get questions. They get nervous, they say: 'Can I do this?’ ‘Is this the right thing?’ ‘Are you sure you've got the right person?' I've never had a man ask me that,” Ruparel explains. A lot of this is to do with the preconceptions and stereotypes surrounding gender, which can impact a woman’s own confidence in herself. Female respondents felt the skills required for humanitarian workers were often associated as typically male characteristics. For example, the confidence to “rush in” and make quick decisions was something many women felt they had to prove they possessed, more than their male counterparts. Ruparel described an incident where, “one woman was told that she was making the whole team vulnerable because she was a woman… and they were likely to be more targeted. I mean the impact that that will have on a woman in a role, to undermine her confidence is massive.” For others, similar incidents led women to not deploy at all, or at least not take up leadership positions. “I don’t think it's just about ‘women are less confident’ ... I think it's then you’re facing stereotypes and negative perceptions and unless you’re, sort of, better than the men, you're seen as not very good. That comparison that people make … you have to face so much discrimination on the ground,” which can be detrimental to a person’s confidence, she explains. How to deal with it: Agencies need to invest in confidence and skills building — particularly for female staff. Ruparel explains, “men often have a lot more confidence to say, ‘well, I can do that’ and just give it a go. Whereas women feel that, unless they’ve had the training, and this and that ... they don’t feel confident enough to do it.” Additionally, women reported being more confident in themselves and their skills following multiple deployments. They should be encouraged to keep surging, in order to grow more comfortable doing so. 3. Personal hygiene Access to — or lack of — toilet facilities and menstruation are things that significantly affect women in the field, but were also topics rarely — if ever — discussed by organizations with their staff. As Ruparel put it, “you’re a woman, you're going to the field, you’ve got your period, how are you going to deal with it, really? I mean it’s very, very, very practical and I do not want to reduce women to ‘okay the difference between men and women is periods’. But ... it's a very big deal.” Yet, “some of the women we spoke to said, ‘you know, I’ve never had this conversation at work before?’ So … how do we encourage organizations to have a much more open conversation about some of those things?” she raised. Ruparel went on to describe an incident with a woman who had been deployed in the Rohingya crisis, and had turned to one of her Bangladeshi male colleagues to say, “‘Look, I need sanitary towels’ and he said, 'you're not being very culturally appropriate talking to me about that …’ Everyone has a story. I can guarantee it.” How to deal with it: The most key and simple solution, here, is communication and openness between all actors in disaster response teams. Organizations need to create an environment where they openly discuss these issues so that, together, they can work out how women can best be supported and men can be sensitized to the needs of women. “The more that we demand, the more that practices of organizations at different levels will change.” --— Sonya Ruparel, deputy humanitarian director of ActionAid Equally, Ruparel calls for women to voice their concerns to their organizations, otherwise they will not be aware, “The more that we demand, the more that practices of organizations at different levels will change.” 4. Well-being and support Being deployed is not a simple matter of packing your bags and leaving. It’s a big commitment and tough task leaving family, friends, and the comfort of home behind. The importance of a support network who will assist and encourage staff in deployment was mentioned by almost everyone. “Whether that was [support] from the organization itself, whether it was from in-country or outside of country, whether it was from their partners, their families, their parents, their grandparents. It was felt, you know, this isn’t a solo thing … that support behind you was really felt to be incredibly important,” Ruparel recalls. How to deal with it: Firstly, Ruparel advises women that, “setting up your own support or peer network is really helpful. As well, talk to other women who have surged.” Surrounding yourself with people who will “help you to find the courage within yourself to do the role,” is so important. Especially because — as was discussed — it is often a woman's own lack of self-confidence which holds them back from surging. Secondly, organizations should ensure that “women have a woman they can speak to on the ground,” Ruparel explains. Ideally, there’s a woman in a leadership role for female staff to voice concerns to. Though, even just having another female co-worker in a surge team — whether in a leadership position or not — was found to be highly valued by women for support. 5. Family, child care, personal relationships Surging is challenging for anyone, but when you’re leaving loved ones behind it is especially difficult. Many staff are also parents, partners and/or caregivers, who have to leave loved ones at short notice, which can be emotionally draining. And, often, there’s a stigma attached to women leaving their children, which there is not for men. Ruparel confided, “I’m a mum, and I struggle every time I go abroad. So, there’s a guilt that goes with the whole thing.” Additionally, the immediacy and unpredictability of deployment is extremely difficult for mothers and caregivers. “If you’ve got small children, you can't just ask pack a bag. You actually have to put things in place to enable your children or your elderly parents or whoever it is your caring for, has appropriate support, so that you feel confident to deliver your job without worrying.” How to deal with it: Agencies need to be more flexible and realistic to accommodate for surge staff. Often, they are “unnecessarily panicking people” by requiring deployment within six hours, when this actually rarely happens — there are many more logistics that come into play, such as visas and flights. Following the research, ActionAid updated their policy to allow 48 hours for staff to sort caregiving responsibilities before being deployed, and they are entitled to claim a financial contribution toward additional paid care arrangements if required. 6. Perceptions, stereotypes, and hostile environment Preconceptions and stereotypes surrounding gender roles are closely linked to the issues of confidence for female surge staff, and play a significant part in why fewer women surge. Stereotypes are often reinforced by the attitudes and actions of certain organizations. Even in some agencies, “they look for men to deploy first. There's this thing that a good humanitarian worker is a man. There’s this, sort of, an image out there. So, you [women] have to fight extra hard, you almost have to have twice as good skills as many men, to be able to just go and be deployed,” Ruparel explains. Additionally, there are comments of a “boys’ club” mentality in some agencies’ surge teams, with men who are condescending and make sexist jokes, comments, and/or innuendos. Ruparel added, “I don’t mean to hugely generalize — but it does tend to be, a lot of humanitarian deployments from some agencies, tend to be the white man that will just talk over you and not even recognize, particularly, that you’re in the room.” These patronizing behaviors all deter women from wanting to surge. How to deal with it: O’Brien advised male staff to, “be aware of the things you do both personally and professionally to contribute to an inclusive work environment.” For example, “refusing to engage in sexist humor,” and to call out other colleagues who do. Ruparel added, organizations also need to realize that, “actually, a good humanitarian deployment team, if it is primarily men, is not a good humanitarian deployment team.” She explains, humanitarian agencies need to be, “much more conscious that … fifty percent of the people that we're working for are women, so fifty percent of our teams must be women,” in order to have a gender-sensitive humanitarian response. Ruparel also recommends organizations provide training around gender and women’s rights “at the very, very core”. Following the report, ActionAid and CARE — along with nine other U.K.-based aid agencies — produced a training program for surge staff — which includes a module on ‘Women’s Rights in Emergencies’ — to fill this crucial gap across training programs for humanitarian workers. 7. Living arrangements Often, male and female surge staff are put together in shared accommodation which can be problematic, particularly if it is deemed inappropriate in the host community’s culture. Male or female staff can feel uncomfortable sharing living quarters and women also reported problems arising where teams expect them to be responsible for domestic tasks, such as cooking and cleaning. How to deal with it: The report suggests arranging separate accommodation for men and women, and if this is not possible, then procedures need to be put in place to delegate and share domestic responsibilities between all staff. Additionally, organizations need to be aware of what is appropriate in the host community when arranging accommodation and ensure there is cultural awareness and sensitivity among all staff.