By John Haltiwanger
When disasters like Hurricane Harvey strike, women are far more likely to be negatively affected than other groups.
A study published in 2007 by researchers at the London School of Economics and the University of Essex found that natural disasters in 141 countries killed decidedly more women than men between 1981 and 2002.
"In other words, natural disasters (and their subsequent impact) on average kill more women than men or kill women at an earlier age than men," the researchers wrote.
Among other consequences, women are also more likely to become victims of domestic or sexual violence following a disaster.
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Rachel E. Luft, a Hurricane Katrina survivor and a professor at Seattle University focusing on race and gender intersectionality in the context of social movements, tells Newsweek that "pre-existing structural inequalities...determine our experience of disaster, and race and gender are intrinsic to these processes."
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