Gender-based violence after disaster is not as niche as you may think

One of the responses we often hear when we tell people that our work focuses on the intersection between gender, and specifically gender-based violence (GBV) and disaster is: “That must be so niche.”

We continue the conversation by pointing to the wealth of global evidence to prove that violence against women and children during and after disaster has never really been a niche issue, including the stark fact that every 1°C rise in global temperature is associated with a 4.7 per cent increase in intimate partner violence. Nor is the myth true that it’s something that happens exclusively overseas or in developing countries, since there’s clear evidence that gender-based violence increases after Australian disasters too.

Sometimes, minimising or relegating an issue as ‘niche’ feels like a deliberate tactic to slow down progress and maintain the status quo.  There’s certainly nothing niche about the undeniable rates at which women are killed in Australia due to men’s violence so for gender equity advocates, it often feels like glacial progress that women’s safety isn’t given the mainstream resources, funding and efforts that it should be.

A sentiment that we sometimes hear from the emergency management and emergency response sectors is about competing priorities, a variation of: “We do care about this issue, but we also have more imminent dangers and higher priorities to deal with in life-or-death situations.”

However, what we hear from women and LGBTIQA+ advocates time and time again is that immediate physical safety is only one aspect of a disaster. Psychological safety, financial safety, cultural safety, and long-term safety of women and children in a community are all equally important. Convincing people of this message, and making that message resonate as a mainstream priority within the sector, is a challenging but vital step towards change.

The power of lived experience

Our Lessons in Disaster Training Program has focused on growing the capacity of the emergency and disaster workforce to recognise and understand GBV in disaster contexts since the program began over a decade ago. The course content has been regularly updated over the years, but one central segment that always receives the most feedback is Hailey’s Story* (pseudonym) which is a video recording of a true first-person account of family violence after disaster.

As a storytelling tool, Hailey’s Story is nuanced and complex. It explores the layers and dynamics of traditional binary gender roles, trauma, mental health support, and disaster resilience and recovery. There are no easy answers, but a core takeaway message is that disaster is never an excuse for family violence.

Planning for gender-based violence in disaster contexts

Tackling GBV in disaster contexts starts by acknowledging the drivers of gender based violence, including traditional binary understandings of the roles of men, women and LGBTIQA+ people. GBV during and after disaster is a known, predictable, and preventable risk. It’s also a risk that, without sustained and concentrated efforts, has the potential to escalate as climate-fueled disasters become more frequent and severe.

For decades, climate change has been driving the emergency planning sector to focus on disaster resilience. However, communities cannot truly be considered resilient if significant portions of the population face increased risks of violence and harm during and after crises. What might the future look like if GBV was considered a core disaster resilience issue and wasn’t viewed as a secondary social issue?

A gender-responsive approach to disaster risk reduction requires moving beyond assumptions that all community members experience disasters in the same way. It means recognising that pre-existing inequalities shape people’s exposure to risk, access to resources, and capacity to recover. It also means understanding that disasters can deepen unequal power relations, particularly when housing, income, employment, childcare, health services, and social support are disrupted.

Reducing GBV requires sustained commitment across sectors. Emergency management agencies, family violence services, community organisations, local governments, and policymakers all have a role to play. Only when we start naming GBV as the mainstream, priority that it is, will we see any progress down the long road to equity and safety that half of the world’s population deserves.

First published: 4 August 2026 in The Coolchange newsletter, edition 4.