Gender and disaster management in Turkey: a strategic-relational analysis of the state response to the February 2023 earthquakes

This article examines the dynamics of gender insensitivity in the actions taken by central and provincial authorities in response to the earthquakes that struck southeast Turkey on 6 February 2023. It employs the concept of the ‘gender selectivity’ of the state as an analytical tool to explain why the Turkish government’s disaster risk governance strategy is not informed by a gender-responsive approach. This analysis is based on a comprehensive review of the disaster governance policy documents produced by the national government and the provincial governing agencies in the earthquake-affected region. This article argues that unequal gendered social relations of power that are structured in the Turkish state apparatus underpin the absence of gender sensitivity in the government’s disaster governance strategy.