The blind spot in emergency preparedness

There is a persistent lack of attention to the gendered dimensions of Norwegian emergency preparedness. Particularly to what is often referred to as ‘soft preparedness’.

Imagine that the power suddenly goes out, not only in your home but in every house, you can see from your window. You try to call someone to find out what is happening, but the mobile network is down. Perhaps you are elderly or have limited mobility and do not feel safe going outside. You have no family nearby.

The hours pass. It grows colder, and you become increasingly frightened. When someone finally arrives to provide information and assistance, chances are it will be a woman, whether from the neighbourhood, the municipality, or from a voluntary organization. This year’s National Self-Preparedness Week focuses on how people can find and receive essential information from the authorities when mobile networks and the internet are unavailable. It is encouraging that society is preparing for situations like these. However, what concerns us is the broader lack of attention to the gendered dimensions of Norwegian preparedness, particularly what is often described as “soft preparedness”, where women’s contributions typically play a central role.

2026 has been named the Year of Total Defence by Norwegian authorities. This also implies that national preparedness has received renewed attention. So far, the discussion has largely centred on what we might call hard preparedness: electricity supply, electronic communications, dams and defence infrastructure. Far less attention is paid to social preparedness, which concerns trust, neighbourliness, volunteering and the ability to care for one another when systems break down. Some refer to this as “soft preparedness”, but we believe that the description is misleading.

Ukraine’s remarkable resilience throughout a prolonged war rests largely on social resilience. Women often form the backbone of this resilience, through voluntary networks that provide food, medicine and shelter to displaced people, and that support survivors of violence and abuse. In Finland, the population’s psychological resilience in times of crisis is regarded as a natural and integral part of total defence. Social preparedness also has a distinctly gendered dimension. In Norway, women make up the majority of those working in health and care services, and women continue to perform most unpaid care work within families. As we witnessed during the pandemic, women’s caring responsibilities increase significantly during periods of crisis (https://nikk.no/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Gender-Equality-effects-of-COVID-19.pdf).

If we fail to incorporate this knowledge and perspective into our preparedness planning, we are in practice planning on the assumption that women will continue to shoulder these responsibilities.

Women’s critical societal work and expertise have a long history of going unnoticed, both in Norway and internationally. It is time for this vital component of societal resilience to be recognized and incorporated into national and local preparedness planning, as well as into our own personal preparedness.

When electronic communications fail, Norwegian municipalities are responsible for ensuring that residents do not lose access to essential information. Many municipalities are planning to establish local information points, often in libraries, sports halls or near municipal offices. Among the oldest people in Norway who live alone, women are by far the majority. Many of them live miles away from municipal centres and depend on transport assistance. To supplement the taxi discount provided through mobility support schemes, they often rely on voluntary organizations, family members or neighbours.

When a crisis strikes, such services can quickly become scarce. So, who will drive an 84-year-old grandmother into town? And beyond that: will she be offered a cup of coffee and a conversation when she arrives? Will home nursing services continue as before? What about her medication?

Social preparedness also concerns men. In Ukraine, for example, many women have reported challenges in supporting partners who have returned traumatized from the front line. The burden of care can be immense, unpredictable and long-lasting.

A society affected by crisis will always require a competent and dependable rear guard. Voluntary organizations such as the Norwegian Women's Public Health Association, the Red Cross and the Norwegian Rural Women's Association maintain local branches across the country, providing visiting services and community meeting places that reach precisely those people whom preparedness plans often overlook. These local organizations know who lives alone, who is vulnerable, and how much a blanket and a conversation can mean. Yet ‘care preparedness’ is still mentioned only in vague terms when we discuss preparing for crises and war. This is a blind spot that may prove costly.

Norwegian municipalities should therefore make much greater use of voluntary organizations and of women’s capacities and expertise in their preparedness planning. Municipal risk and vulnerability assessments should systematically map the social dimensions of different crisis scenarios. Who is affected? Who bears the burden? And who may end up alone, overlooked and forgotten?

In 1993, the crisis researcher Karl Weick introduced the concept of the “collapse of sensemaking”. Events can at times be so overwhelming that they shatter our basic understanding of how the world works and what we can consider safe. No one can prepare fully for the unimaginable. Yet what carries people through such experiences is rarely material resources. It is other people.

Social preparedness is therefore not a soft add-on to hard preparedness. It is the foundation of resilience. It has a gendered dimension. And it is time that this is recognized.

• Kristin Sørung Scharffscher is an Associate Professor at the University of Stavanger
• Torunn L. Tryggestad is a Senior Researcher at PRIO and Director of the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security
• This text was first published in Norwegian as an op ed in Dagsavisen