An Empirical Analysis of Women s Perception on Safety Culture and Disaster Vulnerability

This study empirically examines the vulnerability of the community and the perception of the women’s safety culture in order to realize a community that is safe from disaster. The purpose of this paper is to analyze empirically the women’s perception on safety culture and community vulnerability to disasters. The analytical results are as follows. First, according to the safety awareness scores, women tended to have higher risk perception than men. Second, the safety awareness scores by disaster type indicated that their risk perception was highest for man-made disasters. Third, disaster vulnerabilities were mostly found in women s living space, decision-making, demand responsibility, information accessibility, caregiver role, body, and resource accessibility. In short, gender differences appeared in perception on safety culture and disaster vulnerability in decision-making field.