Visualizing Gender Inequity and (Re)Imagining Future: PhotoVoice in Post-2011-Disaster Japan

Overview: Ongoing analyses of photographs and narratives of women affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Disaster expose political and socio-cultural mechanisms that reinforce women’s vulnerability. This paper discusses potentials and unfolding processes of collective knowledge creation via PhotoVoice in a 10-year longitudinal feminist participatory action research project.Proposal text: Background/Rationale. Pre-disaster inequities get exacerbated in and after disasters, and gender inequity is a case in point (Enarson, 2012; Wisner et al., 2003). At the time of the Great East Japan Disaster in March 2011—a cascade of M9.0 earthquake, colossal tsunamis, and nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan ranked 98th of the 135 countries on the Gender Equality Index; the ranking has since worsened (120th of the 156 countries in 2021) (World Economic Forum, 2011, 2021). In an effort to insert previously marginalized and silenced women’s perspectives into policy and political discourse in the aftermath of this devastating disaster, we launched a participatory action research (PAR) project using PhotoVoice methodology (Wang, 1999; Wang & Burris, 1997).
Methods/Methodology. Begun in three sites in June 2011, this longitudinal PAR project in its 11th year is currently operating in seven sites and has engaged over 60 members of diverse backgrounds in participatory assessment and analysis. On an ongoing basis, participating members take photographs of their lives and communities, and share and discuss them in small groups facilitated by the author and trained collaborators. These meetings, conducted several times a year, serve as a site of grieving disaster-related losses while documenting and analyzing the disaster’s impact on social-ecological systems. Along the way, members create “voices,” written messages to convey their critical reflections, insights, and recommendations. By disseminating their photographs and voices, participants take (and incite others to take) action to improve their environment and beyond. Building on the ongoing participatory analysis of members’ photographs and narratives, this study examines gender inequity in and after the disaster using constructivist feminist analytical approaches of grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014; Clarke, 2012; Kemmis, 2006; Olesen, 2007).
Results. The analysis identified various ways the disaster affected women, compromising their livelihood, safety, and well-being. Members’ photographs and voices revealed an interconnection between the evacuation of children and women of reproductive age, loss of employment in the female-dominated occupational sectors, and increased dependent care responsibilities, which in turn compromised women’s financial and emotional well-being. The analysis also elucidated the gendered division of labor in private and public spheres, shortages of maternal and infant health care, and gender-based violence in the post-disaster context. Collectively, members’ photographs and narratives uncovered political and socio-cultural mechanisms at play and exposed failures of disaster policies and programs, i.e., a lack of analysis of and attention to gendered power inequity, which reinforces women’s vulnerability. In addition to a wide range of destruction to the ecosystems, members also illuminated via photographs and written voices, images of the future they desire, a resilient and sustainable society, coexisting with nature.
Conclusion. Grounded in feminist theoretical and epistemological traditions and Freire’s education for critical consciousness (Freire, 1970; Maguire, 1987), PhotoVoice places those affected by the social issue under investigation at the center of inquiry. This study illustrates potentials, and unfolding processes, of collective knowledge development via PhotoVoice, challenging the monopoly of knowledge creation by predominantly male “experts” (Fals-Borda & Rahman, 1991; Hall, 1977) and advancing feminist change-oriented inquiries.