Analysis and Investigation of Women’s Priorities in Choosing Various Possible Types of Temporary (Transitional) Settlement (Case Study: District 9 of Tehran Municipality)

Today, despite growth & development of technology in many countries, disasters and crisis management
has transformed to one of the emerging challenges for managers and planners. Natural disasters and
human-caused ones lead to crises by integrating to human vulnerability. The issue of gender in disasters is
one of the important & critical aspects of human vulnerabilities. Generally, concentration on gender issues
in disasters is a relatively new debate which its commencement refers to the 1990s. Existing researches in
the field of gender and disaster are confined especially in the branch of temporary settlements. In addition,
most programs in the area of temporary settlement, locking a gender approach, are concentrated on
creating planned camps inside or outside the city. In programming for transitional settlements, the critical
strategy is perception of this fact that transitional settlements have been chosen by the displaced
populations. This understanding will determine which options should be supported and how the supports
should be offered, at each phase of response. In this paper, efforts are taken to investigate the issue of
transitional (temporary) settlement based upon a gender approach by benefiting from the field studies in
district 9 of Tehran, one of the most vulnerable districts in this city by having the potential for defining
transitional settlement types. The procedure includes surveying theories and basics of temporary
settlement, detection of women vulnerabilities, and then conceptualization and extraction of dimensions,
indicators and effective variables in desirability of transitional settlements. In this paper, social aspects and
environmental perception of different types of transitional settlement have just investigated with variables
such as security and protection, privacy and human dignity, willingness to participation, viability and
vitality, amenity and discipline. The number of necessary samples from the statistical community (the
women residing in district 9 of Tehran), according to Cochran Formula was determined 380 persons. In
the current research, the random sampling method was used for selection of samples; and at the end, the
data gained from SPSS software have been analyzed statistically. The main objective of this paper is
prioritizing transitional settlement types in the format of the single indicators and combined ones defined
by women. In this regard, the final result of study showed that among main options of transitional
settlement from women’s viewpoint, settlement in the host families and collective centers are the highest
desirabilities (73.89 points) and planned as well as equipped camps have the least desirabilities (32 point)
out of 100. According to this, in order to settle the women residing in district 9, the planners and disaster
managers shall support the choice of settlement with host families and collective centers and minimize the
women vulnerabilities in the conditions prone to getting homeless by detecting the weaknesses strengths,
opportunities and threats of these options, and by providing appropriate strategies too.