LIVING ON THE FAULT LINES: WOMEN’S GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH IN POSTDISASTER NEPAL

Purpose: The goal of this project is to link the analysis of gender construction to reproductive health, sexuality, and development within the postdisaster context of Nepal and thereby, inform our understandings of these linkages more broadly, as well as provide new opportunities for promoting gender equity, reproductive health, and development in areas of conflict or disaster. Methodology/Approach: Using life history narratives, I examine the intersections among reproductive health, gender, and sexuality before, during, and postdisaster. Findings: These life history interviews shed light on how socialization processes shape and determine adolescent girls’ future actions and women’s life opportunities. At both the individual and state levels, issues related to gender, sexuality, and reproductive health are exacerbated in times of crisis. Research Limitations/Implications: Life histories provide rich, thick descriptions of social life. However, they are limited in terms of reliability and making generalizations about larger populations. This chapter engages the reader, scholars, students, practitioners, and policy makers in contemplating policy reform and initiation of context-based programs in times of natural disaster, political conflict, and other catastrophic events that disenfranchise those without agency and power. Originality/Value of Paper: This paper is unique in that it is the first to examine reproductive health and sexuality from the perspective of women living within a society bound by rigid gender and sexuality norms, but torn apart by natural disasters and the political and economic instability that follow in countries like Nepal.