International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 82 (2022) 103342

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International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijdrr

Gender, (im)mobility and social relations shaping vulnerabilities in

coastal Bangladesh
Ashraful Alam a, Momtaj Bintay Khalil b, *
a School of Geography, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
b Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney, Australia

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Relational vulnerability embraces place-specific social relations as critical determinants of vul-
Bangladesh nerability, countering the traditional conceptualization of vulnerability as scale neutral and a sta-
Climate change tic feature of an individual or a social group. This paper adopts a relational approach to examine
Relational vulnerability how vulnerabilities are experienced by two groups of women in southwestern Bangladesh. The
Gender
first group remained in their villages while their husbands migrated to the city for better liveli-
Mobility
hoods after cyclone Aila in 2009. The second group relocated with their husbands from the
Social capital
coastal villages to the nearby regional urban center, typically in the aftermath of major coastal
cyclones during 2007–2013. A qualitative examination of these women's experiences in the ori-
gin and destination highlights how gender identity shapes forms of social relations, minimizing
or reinforcing existing vulnerabilities and, on some occasions, creating new vulnerabilities. The
findings debunk some of the popular misconceptions about post-cyclone mobilities in coastal
Bangladesh. Migration to cities is typically seen as a rational adaptation response to minimize cli-
mate vulnerabilities; however, the paper shows how migration also redistributes and triggers new
forms of non-climatic vulnerabilities to women in those migrant families. Similarly, non-
migration is often perceived as an actor's inability to avoid risks. However, our findings suggest
that immobility enables left-alone housewives to devise creative in-situ responses and resist vul-
nerabilities. The findings reinforce the importance of examining the differential vulnerabilities
and responses reproduced in the intersections of gender, (im)mobility, and social relations, war-
ranting just scales of intervention to support gender-specific needs temporally, socially and spa-
tially.

1. Introduction
The concept of vulnerability is sweeping the growing literature on the human dimensions of climate change. Vulnerability, in this
context, refers to the susceptibility of a person or group to harm stemming from exposure to a climate hazard [1]. Crucially, suscepti-
bility stems not only from harm in relation to specific hazards [2] but also from social circumstances based on which an individual,
even within an apparently homogeneous social group, responds differently [3–5]. A range of societal factors, such as institutional
processes, regulatory structures, land rights, and social norms, influence an individual's responses [6,7]. Recent scholarship on “rela-
tional vulnerability” has engaged with these complex socio-ecological dimensions of responses to rethink effective climate change
adaptation [5,8,9]. The approach counters traditional vulnerability as a scale neutral and static feature of an individual or social

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: Momtaj.B.Khalil@alumni.uts.edu.au (M.B. Khalil).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103342
Received 5 April 2022; Received in revised form 2 September 2022; Accepted 2 October 2022
Available online 13 October 2022
2212-4209/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A. Alam and M.B. Khalil International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 82 (2022) 103342

group. Instead, context and social relations are considered critical determinants of vulnerability, allowing or limiting one's access to
resources required to achieve resilience.
Using a relational approach to vulnerability, the paper examines how households' non-migration and migration responses influ-
ence women's experiences of vulnerabilities in the origin and destination of coastal Bangladesh. We mainly highlight how women's
agencies produce distinct “social relations” and outcomes [10, p. 1596] that influence the divergent ways vulnerabilities are experi-
enced. Studies already recognize how climate change related vulnerabilities are often exacerbated for, and thereby disproportionately
experienced by, women than their male counterparts even in the same household [11–16]. While migration seems to be a rational
adaptation response to remove oneself from harm's way, in general, globally, only one in 30 are migrants [17]. Most people remain
voluntarily immobile or are involuntarily trapped without any means to migrate [18,19]. There has been an overrepresentation of
‘migration’ studies [20], whereas research on non-migration, including the social and psychological factors affecting women's immo-
bility, is only gaining ground recently [21,22]. We address this bias by examining both migration and non-migration outcomes and
the dynamic relationship between gender and vulnerability across time and scale.
Traditionally, Bangladeshi women are more vulnerable than their male counterparts due to their relatively lower socio-economic
status and lesser participation [23] in the male-dominated decision-making processes related to climate change [24,25]. Due to vari-
ous factors, women in coastal Bangladesh are particularly immobile and thus face ongoing risks resulting from climate change
[22,26,27]. Their gender-defined roles within the household further render these women more susceptible to risks associated with
food insecurity, water scarcity, poor sanitation, and waterborne diseases [28,29]. Coastal women's vulnerability is further exacer-
bated by their relative poverty and marginalization, as well as dominant cultural and religious factors that influence response
[14,25,27]. The patriarchal rural social structure adds further complexity, as isolated women receive a limited flow of climatic infor-
mation (e.g., warnings) and resources from the public sphere, consequently hindering adaptation [30].
With a relational focus, the paper explores how vulnerabilities were experienced by two groups of women from the poorest socio-
economic populace in southwestern Bangladesh. The first group were from the coastal villages of Gabura Union. Their husbands mi-
grated outside the village for better opportunities after cyclone Aila devastated the Bangladeshi coast in 2009. The second group of
housewives migrated from different coastal villages. They accompanied their husbands to the regional urban center, Khulna city, in
the aftermath of ongoing major cyclones over the last thirty years. In the following sections, we first engage with the concept of rela-
tional vulnerability to understand how it could be operationalized to understand gender-differentiated vulnerabilities in our study
contexts. We then introduce the methodology and case study context before finally exploring the results and implications. A relational
analysis of vulnerability shows how both vulnerability and adaptation are reproduced in the intersection of these women's diverse in-
situ relations with places and actors and across scales which lends important insights to devise future adaptation responses.

2. A relational approach to vulnerability

Hazards, exposure and vulnerability may each be subject to uncertainty in terms of magnitude and likelihood of occurrence,
and each may change over time and space due to socio-economic changes and human decision-making. (Guidance for IPCC
Sixth Assessment Report Authors, [31], p. 5).
The IPCC report explicitly refers that the degree to which populations are vulnerable to hazards is not solely dependent upon prox-
imity to the source nor the physical nature of the threat. Social factors play a significant role in determining vulnerability. For exam-
ple, Cutter et al. [32] showed in their study of Georgetown, South Carolina, that the most biophysically vulnerable places do not al-
ways spatially intersect with the most vulnerable populations. Increasingly, scholars are using the term ‘social vulnerability’ or ‘dif-
ferential social vulnerability’ to distinguish the biophysical from the human dimension of natural hazards. Social vulnerability has
been defined as an individual's or group's sensitivity to and ability to adapt to and recover from natural hazards [33–35]. Social vul-
nerability differs by socioeconomic factors such as race and ethnicity, gender, age, class, education and social status, as well as more
complex factors such as health and disability status, access to social networks, housing, cultural knowledge and political power
[33,36].
Feminist research often uses an intersectional framework [37,38] to recognize the interplay of socioeconomic factors that shape
an individual's social location, how they experience space and place, and thereby, their vulnerability to climate change [4,39]. These
studies shed light on how social location determines the level of “responsibility, vulnerability, and decision-making power of individ-
uals and groups [have] in relation to climate change” [39, p. 420] which means different social locations shape and constrain individ-
ual agency [39], power, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity [40]. Owusu et al. [15] demonstrated that while climate change poses
serious environmental hazards to all residents of slums, their perceptions and knowledge regarding the causes and impacts of these
hazards were differentiated by gender, age, educational status, and place-based variables, with women generally showing a lower
level of awareness about climate change than their male counterparts. Further, Mirenda and Lazos Chavero [41] showed that cultur-
ally defined gender roles in Mexico meant that women had lower levels of education, remuneration, social recognition, political par-
ticipation, and capacities to face risks. Overall, women's secondary status in decision-making diminishes their freedom of choice of re-
sponse, thereby, their agencies [42].
A relational approach assumes that vulnerability is not only a feature of a social actor (individual, household, community) but also
“a feature of the social actor's relationships with other actors” [1, p. 31]. Gordon-Bouvier [43] conceptualized ‘relational vulnerabili-
ty’ as referring to an individual's existence within the context of an uneven or unequal relationship. Climate change affects men and
women individually, and the challenges faced by each gender vary with their families, social networks, and environmental surround-
ings [26,44]. For example, a study on small farmers in Ghana shows that female-headed households are more sensitive to climate
change impacts and variability; however, they have the least adaptive capacities due to a lack of livelihood diversification, social net-

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A. Alam and M.B. Khalil International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 82 (2022) 103342

works, healthcare supports, food and water impacting their wellbeing [45]. Relational vulnerability may not be “scale neutral” in
both the temporal and spatial sense that the vulnerability of individuals, households and communities is not necessarily correlated.
Instead, one may experience differential trajectories of risk exposure, response, and resilience which are the product of one's social re-
lations in space and time. For example, a farmer's vulnerability is not simply a result of his incorporation into the agricultural labour
and food market “but is situational, dependent on the interplay among a diverse set of social relations at particular historical mo-
ments: husbands and wives, elders and juniors, patrons and clients, herders and farmers, lenders and debtors, and sovereigns and sub-
jects” [1, p. 31].
Recognizing that vulnerability and adaptation responses are neither static nor scale neutral but constantly changing over time and
space based on one's social location [1,46], the following sections explore how Bangladeshi women's migration and non-migration re-
sponses have put them in different vulnerability trajectories. As Eriksen et al. [8] describe, some interventions reinforce existing vul-
nerability, others simply redistribute vulnerability, and some interventions introduce new sources of vulnerability. These different
vulnerability trajectories tend to “follow the same social cleavages” [8, p. 3], such as gender or ethnicity, which created vulnerability
and inequality in the first place. Having scalar and temporal foci thus helps identify how and if communities have ended up with com-
pounded vulnerability due to the presence of responses that can be described as ‘maladaptation’ [47,48]. Overall, these works equip
us to identify the women's exposure to vulnerability in the two case study settings, both in their historical and social-cultural contexts
and how these women's non-migration and migration responses have further exacerbated or minimized the vulnerability in the long
run.

3. Methodology and case studies

A relational approach to vulnerability is used to thematically analyze interviews conducted with two groups of women. The first
group, primarily interviewed between January–April 2016, comprised purposely selected 25 women1 from the Gabura Union (Fig. 1)
who stayed back in the villages whilst their husbands migrated in search of better livelihoods. Gabura Union has an area of 85.5
square km and 15 villages, with an approximate population of 38,825 and 7500 households [49]. Due to the low-lying coastline and
island-like landmass, Gabura is frequently subject to storm surges, cyclones, and annual flooding. It was one of the most affected
Unions in Shyamnagar during cyclone Aila (category 1 cyclone) in 2009 [49]. The ongoing flooding following Aila and preexisting
high soil salinity made traditional land-based farming less viable [50]. Consequently, Gabura has faced waves of men's long- and
short-term out-migration to regional urban centers seeking alternate livelihood opportunities [51].
During fieldwork in 2016, none of the male members was present with their wives in Gabura. Later, in January–February 2018,
the second author revisited the field. A few of the male members were found to return to Gabura as the island ecologies started to re-
cover, providing farming opportunities on the previously inundated lands. NGO-assisted salt-tolerant farming practices also attracted
a few male members to return to the origin. However, as of 2018, most of the 25 participating household males were still absent from
Gabura and commuted to the village occasionally. A few male members cut off ties with families in Gabura as they had started new
families in the destination.

Fig. 1. Study locations in southwestern Bangladesh. Source: Google Map.

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A. Alam and M.B. Khalil International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 82 (2022) 103342

The second group consisted of women from 37 households2 interviewed between November 2014 and February 2015 who mi-
grated along with their families from various coastal villages in South-western Bangladesh to the urban fringes of Khulna city (Fig. 1).
Khulna, the third largest urban center of Bangladesh, is a migrant hotspot and climate migrants started to be visible as early as 25
years back. However, all our participants were recent migrants who entered Khulna after recent tropical cyclones in 2007 (Sidr), 2008
(Nargis), 2009 (Aila), and 2013 (Mahasen). Most climate migrants in Khulna, belonging to the lowest socio-economic cohort, live in
urban informal settlements [52] and many live on the urban fringes outside established slums [53]. Twenty-eight (28) households
lived on privately owned land, which their families accessed through verbal negotiations with absentee landowners. The remaining
nine (9) lived on vacant government land through negotiations with local political elites. Data collection also included five (5) focus
group discussions which involved different combinations of households and stakeholder groups. Thirteen (13) key informant inter-
views included local government officials, local political leaders, development practitioners from (DFID and USAID), land developers
and expert planners. A second field visit was done in January–February 2018 when nine of 37 participant families were found relo-
cated to other privately owned lands within the area.
Transcribed interview data were manually coded for thematic analysis to understand the perceptions and experiences of vulnera-
bilities that stem from the participant women's particular actions in their origins and destination. In addition, detailed participant ob-
servation during multiple field visits in 2014, 2015 and 2018 provided a detailed understanding of the socio-spatial settings and valu-
able insights into different trajectories of vulnerabilities [8] based on gender. The following two sections document the two groups of
women's experiences of vulnerabilities in the origin and destination.

4. Women's experiences of vulnerabilities in the origin

Prolonged environmental disruptions caused by cyclone Aila typically forced Gabura men to adapt via temporary and permanent
migration outside of the Union for better livelihoods [74]. While day-to-day commuting to smaller, nearby urban centers (e.g.,
Shyamnagar, Munshiganj, Satkhira, etc.) is the most common response, significant short-, medium- and long-term migration to larger
urban centers (e.g., Khulna, Jessore or Dhaka) and the Sundarbans3 was also evident [54]. This latter type has limited the men's pres-
ence in Gabura to only once or twice a year, typically for family reunions. This absence has implications for how their familial rela-
tionships shape over time. Eight of the twenty-five women interviewed in this case study had completely lost connection with their
husbands within three years of migration. Altogether, the male household heads' extended absence created what Khalil and col-
leagues [14] describe as “a unique gap” (p, 667) in these women's lives which had flow-on effects and “social costs” [32] in terms of
how these women devised in-situ adaptation responses and experienced vulnerability.
First, the absence of men amplified and redistributed the women's pre-existing vulnerabilities through disruption to the gendered
division of labour (i.e., where men are breadwinners and women are homemakers and caregivers) within the patriarchal, rural social
setting of Gabura. Prolonged male absence, often resulting in irregular and minimal flow of remittances, caused tension and anxiety
among the participant women. On top of financial uncertainty, the absence of the male ‘guardian’ of the household caused significant
psychological stress. As one participant mentioned,
Not that all the problems are sorted when my husband is around. It’s not like that. He (the husband) is like the pillar of the
house. No matter if he sits idle for days, his presence around is a big relief. When he is around, people (e.g., the Imam from the
mosque) check in if we need anything … [Tara4/F/37/9 no. Sora, Gabura]
Similar perceptions prevailed among most of the participant housewives who had limited-to-no work-related engagement outside
of the household prior to the husband's migration. This, coupled with their husband's absence from the non-domestic front, had re-
duced the families' chances of access to information from the mosque or meetings with the Member5. Eventually, families experienced
a reduced entitlement to relief which often required a male member to actively pursue them within the patriarchal political structure
of Bangladeshi villages. Even if these women were invited to P/RRA (Participatory/Rapid Rural Appraisal) meetings, the overwhelm-
ing burden of managing the home front restricted their participation, and absenteeism potentially risked access to future relief entitle-
ments.
Second, participant women were increasingly exposed to new vulnerabilities with their altered role as breadwinners. None of the
participant housewives had worked outside the home before their husband's migration except for assisting in the family's field. Along-
side this shift in roles, the care and maintenance of households significantly suffered. Sometimes, the eldest children stopped attend-
ing school and assumed homemaking and caregiving responsibilities for younger siblings and elderly grandparents. Some children ac-
companied their mothers on the four-to-five-hour journey for water collection from the nearest water filtration point. All participants
mentioned that they were paid less at work than men even though they felt that they worked more, as they “never took a break for
smoking” [Halima/F/30/Chakbara village]. A few participants started commuting for work (e.g., to the crab fattening farms) in Mun-
shiganj Union, just across the river. In the context where women's work outside of the home was not ‘normal’, this came with a high
social cost – increasingly, these ‘outbound’ women found themselves removed from the more ‘complying’ women in the village with
whom they had strong social ties in the past. The reduced social capital carried implications for the household, such as a reduced flow
of information and psychological and material support.
Third, and most importantly, as the participant women became more outbound, they were able to connect with local and interna-
tional NGOs [55]. Over time, the successes of these interventions have 'mended' [75] previously disrupted relationships in the family
and the village [51] and minimized the vulnerabilities mentioned above. As confirmed by our participants, the relationship with
NGOs enabled training and knowledge transference, building on and utilizing their (farming) knowledge and skills to explore new

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A. Alam and M.B. Khalil International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 82 (2022) 103342

livelihood options (Table 1). Overall, these NGO-supported interventions profoundly helped the participants to support their families
without much assistance from their male members.
As confirmed by our participants, to cope with their husbands' absence, they transformed their various pre-existing resources (e.g.,
natural and social capital) into livelihood capitals. For example, they developed a variety of salt-tolerant cropping options with the
help of NGOs. These include the composite tower and sac/bag cultivation techniques which required minimal space in the homestead
but maximized the harvest (Fig. 2). An interview with the regional coordinator of CREL revealed that innovations by these women re-
ceived international recognition from USAID in 2016. These success stories significantly boosted the women's confidence in their abil-
ities and agency and encouraged other women in the community. Over time, as the participants explained, the interventions got more
organized by forming women-led support groups through which these livelihood innovations could be widely shared [75]. As the
benefits of these interventions became visible, some male members returned to Gabura and became involved with their wives.
These women-led interventions, extensively documented in previous studies [14,51,55], have had a profound, long-term transfor-
mative effect on the non-migrant women in Gabura, helping them cope with risks associated with various climatic and non-climatic
stressors in the post-Aila era.

5. Women's experiences of vulnerabilities in the destination

Due to their family's landlessness and low socioeconomic status, the 37 participant wives faced a range of new vulnerabilities after
migrating to Khulna. Barring a few participants whose extended family members had migrated to these places before, most partici-
pants found themselves ‘out of place’, ‘overwhelmed’, and ‘lost’ in being removed from their long-established communal connec-
tions. This played a significant role in terms of the struggles these women faced as migrant housewives in Khulna. As one participant
explained,
He (her husband) leaves for work early morning. Then for the whole day, I am alone here with three kids. The groceries ran out
the other day. I could not go to the Bazaar, leaving these little ones alone. So, we, four, starved that day … Back home, I had op-
tions – I could borrow a pot of rice from the neighboring sister, or I could put my kids with her. Here it’s 24/7 tension - how
could I manage alone if anything goes wrong? [Nilufar/F/24/Mohammad Nagar, Khulna]
All participants agreed that the absence of these kinds of women-to-women social networks, a typical feature in the village, had
significantly impacted their settlement process. Participants were deprived of necessary psychological support and access to informa-
tion regarding healthcare, job opportunities, etc. For some participants, these vulnerabilities were minimized by temporarily leaving
children behind with extended family members in their villages, whilst parents sought out better settlement and livelihood opportuni-

Table 1
Non-migrant women's NGO-assisted coping strategies after Aila.

NGOs Livelihood activities

Within the village

Sushilon; World Vision Homestead agriculture (e.g., salt tolerant cropping, composite sac/bag gardening, elevated
(macha) gardening, etc.)
Uttaran; Jagoroni Chakra Foundation Handicraft work (e.g., doll, net, basket, mat, etc.)
Friendship Disaster Management Committee; Nowabenki Trainer of agriculture, handicraft production, water resource management, health and
Gonomukhi Foundation sanitation
Dhaka Ahsania Mission; Paribartan Labour in mangrove regeneration project
Outside the village
Winrock International, funded by USAID Labour in crab fattening and fish farming as part of the Climate Resilient Ecosystems and
Livelihoods (CREL) project
Center for Natural Resource Studies, funded by OXFAM Labour in mangrove regeneration project, forest protection project (mangrove nursery)
International
Source: Second author's fieldwork

Fig. 2. Women's innovation – a) sack/bag, b) composite tower, and c) vertical (macha) cultivation. Source: Second author.

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A. Alam and M.B. Khalil International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 82 (2022) 103342

ties [57]. Sometimes, these extended family members sent crabs, honey, and other natural products from the Sundarbans for the par-
ticipant women to sell in Khulna and generate income.
Conservative religious-cultural norms that demarcated women's caregiving role in the domestic setting as a priori to ‘a happy fam-
ily’, continued to exist in Khulna. In extreme cases, wives stepping outside of the house was considered an ‘evil deed’ for which the
whole household would be cursed [10, p. 1586]. This meant that while the male family member's participation in economic activities
(e.g., rickshaw pulling, construction work, etc.) in the public sphere was normalized as part of a rational migration outcome, the fe-
male family member's work outside the home, for the same reason, was restricted. Participant housewives looked after the home front
to support their husband's livelihood pursuits outside the home. On top of the gender-defined responsibilities, these housewives were
proxies for their husbands to provide the necessary agricultural services to their patrons to retain access to shelter and avoid eviction.
Thus, with restricted mobility outside the home and the additional responsibilities within the domestic sphere, migrant housewives
were doubly vulnerable in Khulna's fringes.
Nevertheless, over time, some participants managed to negotiate the expectations of their husbands through cautious adjustments
to the domestic routines, which enabled them to take on casual livelihood options in the neighborhood. They provided a range of on-
call services (see Table 2) in the houses of the urban elites in the neighborhood. Their knowledge and skillsets from their agrarian
backgrounds helped them perform many of these works.
Participants' gendered identity as women enabled access to these homes as wealthy housewives were the employers. Gradually,
participants developed mutual dependencies and social capital that exceeded typical employer-employee relations. This allowed par-
ticipants to access both material and psychological support from their employers (see: [10]. With adequate trust established, partici-
pants could perform some of their own domestic duties (e.g., laundry, cooking, etc.) in their employer's home. These women-to-
women relationships helped these migrant housewives to overcome anxieties that had occupied them in the initial years of their mi-
gration when they lacked social networks and peer support. As one participant described,
Apa [the Bengali word for sister] is like our guardian. We live on others' land. It is kindness. But working at Apa’s house gives
me the courage. If I am in hardship, I can borrow money from her. Later I can repay the loan with my labour … She also refers
me to others. [Lucky/F/45/Hogladanga, Khulna]
Furthermore, these women could minimize their vulnerabilities by engaging with a local NGO called Shushilan, which strived to
enhance the livelihoods of extremely marginalized communities in these urban fringes through the USAID-funded project called
Prasar. Per the interview with the Prasar Project Manager, the programme was designed outside the typical microfinance model to
empower marginalized women. As explained by the project manager, cash incentives were not always a viable pathway for empower-
ing women as male household heads typically had oversight of their finances. With encouragement from the NGO, the programme
was initiated through a shared recognition by these housewives that they ‘needed to do something’ to utilize their ancestral knowl-
edge and skillsets to change their economically disadvantaged circumstances.
Shushilan only provided the initial material supports (e.g., seeds, ruminants, chickens), farming tools, and training. On some occa-
sions, the project officers helped negotiate with local leaders for the women to use vacant public lots or sections of the canal for their
project. Occasionally, they could also cultivate on private land, which absentee landowners allowed in return for the caretaking of
the land. Afterwards, these women assumed a sense of control over the programme operations with limited intervention from the
NGO. Based on their skillsets, interests, and suitability, they formed ‘care’ groups [58] wherein they, in principle, agreed to look af-
ter the interests and well-being of fellow women. The care groups successfully distributed responsibilities among the team members.
For example, while some assumed the responsibility of training others and working in the fields, others volunteered to sell the prod-
ucts (Fig. 3) or maintain the accounts.
These interventions made these women self-sufficient. They could continue these sharing economic practices in the long run, even
when the NGO ceased the programme in this location. They recognized the immediate economic benefits to themselves and how their
active income would support the family. Eventually, they started group saving schemes outside the NGO oversight, which they could
use to purchase land and assets in the future. Overall, the women felt empowered through the programme as they assumed greater
control over their lives and subsequent settlement processes in the city.

Table 2
Migrant housewives’ casual livelihood options in Khulna.

Livelihood activities Frequency of service

1. Clearing weeds from homestead garden Seasonally, once/twice a year

2. Collecting trash from door to door Usually twice a month
3. Collecting cow dung and making fuel stick 2-3 times a week
4. Carrying water for domestic use from the community water collection point 2-3 times a week
5. Preparing seedbeds, harvesting crops Seasonal, two/three times a year
6. Making fences of homesteads and gardens Year-round, as available
7. Earthwork (cutting and molding) for making traditional oven, maintenance of the courtyard and plinth of Year-round, on call
the homestead
8. Maintaining date trees, collecting and selling date juice Seasonally, 2–3 times a week during winter
months
9. Ferrying vegetables, honey, homemade pickle and traditional cake (e.g., vaapa, chitoi, puli, etc.) Year-round
Source: First author's fieldwork

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Fig. 3. Group members selling products in the local bazaar. Source: First Author.

6. Discussion: implications of rethinking relational vulnerability

Using a relational approach, we reveal that vulnerabilities and responses were neither uniformly distributed among the two
groups of women nor fixed in time and space. Nor do our findings show that women who migrated with their families were more im-
mune than those whose husbands left them in the village. Instead, we show how the experiences of two groups of women varied and
took on different trajectories over time and space, where the participant's gender identity played a crucial role in influencing relations
and responses. Following Eriksen et al. [8], we have interrogated the scalar and timebound vulnerability trajectories in relation to the
women's responses or a lack of them. We observed that new vulnerabilities emerged in both the origin and destination because of the
participants' precarious and powerless status as women, which also amplified and redistributed some pre-existing vulnerabilities.
Over time, both groups minimized, if not completely resisted, some vulnerabilities by developing farming, non-farming, and commu-
nity economy innovations. Nevertheless, the findings reinforce that irrespective of their placements in the village or the city, these
women remained subject to complex patriarchal power structures that compounded risks and constrained their ability to exercise
their own ‘agency’ [39] until external (NGO) support became available. The findings align with studies in Bangladesh and elsewhere
[21–23,27,42] that suggest women's ‘secondary status’ due to their gender-based identity limits their flourishing in the post-cyclone
recovery context.
Notably, we observed the participant women's experiences of vulnerabilities in the context of their ‘relationships’ [1,26,43,44]
with a range of actors, such as their male household heads, neighboring women and NGOs. These place-specific social relations are
critical in enabling or limiting their access to resources and, thus, their resilience. The risks and responses were determined by the
forms of social relationships (e.g., bonding, bridging, and linking)7 these women could enact or not. With a focus on gender, our study
sheds light on the intricacies of these complex social relationships. As we observed, for the non-migrant women, due to their hus-
band's out-migration, bonding relationships were disrupted early, and, with time, some broke down completely. Furthermore, as
women's engagement with external members, i.e., NGOs, was not normalized in the rural context, the bridging support systems were
disrupted due to mistrust and tension among the ‘complying’ community women. In contrast, the participants who relocated to
Khulna, immediately suffered a loss of social connections. However, with time, they explored casual work in their neighborhoods
which helped develop sustained social capital. In both cases, the linking relationships with NGOs helped develop long-term capacity
building, which then helped mend the previously disrupted bridging relationships as other women came to collaborate. On some oc-
casions, the wives' success stories mended the bonding relations, as husbands recognized the value of their work. The findings provide
insights into rethinking women's agency in post-cyclone adaptation, recovery and resilience with specific attention to the role of ‘so-
cial capital’, which was also acknowledged by recent research in the context [14,55,59].
The findings debunk some misconceptions about post-cyclone mobilities in several ways. For example, rural-to-urban migration is
typically seen as a rational adaptation response for coastal communities looking to overcome climate vulnerabilities by removing in-
dividuals and families from harm's way and creating opportunities for diversifying income sources [60,61]. However, our findings re-
veal that migration, be it by the male household head or the whole family, may turn into ‘maladaptation’ [47,48] by redistributing
and triggering new vulnerabilities in the destination as well as in the origin [57,62]. Besides, migration as an ‘adaptation strategy’
does not capture the divergent experiences migrants and their families face [63]. Our study supports such a claim as we observed that
the migration of male household heads created and exacerbated vulnerabilities for their wives in the origin. Without the male mem-
ber, the wives did not have relief entitlement and failed to maintain pre-existing social networks. Migration is also maladaptive in the
destination, as urban institutions could not support unregistered (and informal) migrant families who often negotiated temporary set-
tlements on vacant private or public land [53,64]. These transient circumstances hindered the development of social relations and be-
longing to the destination and thus compounded vulnerabilities.

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A. Alam and M.B. Khalil International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 82 (2022) 103342

Our findings also debunk the stereotyping of non-migration, which is typically seen as an actor's inability to avoid risks because of
one's stationary status. Although the immobile wives in Gabura initially faced amplified and new vulnerabilities in the absence of the
male household heads, they gradually devised creative in-situ livelihood strategies by establishing relations, trust building, and col-
laboration with NGOs and fellow villagers. In Khulna, migrant wives pursued similar opportunities, although initially, they were seen
to lack agency in the patriarchal societal system. Overall, the findings reinforce the importance of examining the differential vulnera-
bilities of individuals and family members that stem from either migration or non-migration actions pursued proactively or involun-
tarily. A relational approach could help the government and non-government organizations devise “just scales of action” [57] to sup-
port gender-specific needs temporally, socially and spatially. Post-disaster interventions, such as relief, livelihood development or re-
settlement programmes, need to consider the differential vulnerabilities one experiences because of the changed social relations, fam-
ily composition and roles and responsibilities caused by mobility choices. Supports should be tailored to match households' short-,
medium- and long-term migration or non-migration aspirations and circumstances.

7. Conclusion
In concluding the paper, we highlight a few cautionary notes and future research directions. Although this paper has only exam-
ined a small cross-section of coastal women's experiences through qualitative research, it does not imply that they are the only gender
to experience vulnerability. Men's migration experiences, as well as their views on the altered role of their wives in the origin and des-
tination, warrant examination. Recent studies suggest that women and men within a family have traditionally devised adaptations by
complementing their specific roles and livelihood interests [11,12]. So, future studies could analyze how their combined in-situ or
multiple place-based responses have shaped vulnerabilities. Future research could also compare migration and non-migration experi-
ences of actors from the same origin. Lastly, our findings of women minimizing some of their vulnerabilities and gaining empower-
ment should not be romanticized, which may send a normative and depoliticized message that these women can wholly self-actualize
their well-being and livelihoods. Such a reductive interpretation could induce long-term vulnerability for these households through
their exclusion from state relief/welfare systems. Instead, we call for more longitudinal studies to understand the short- and long-term
implications of these women-only interventions and their level of acceptance within the patriarchal social system. Future studies
should also explore if these women-led interventions can inform more transformative adaptation or if these women further get ex-
posed to new kinds of vulnerabilities and exclusion. Adopting a relational vulnerability approach is undoubtedly helpful in informing
how gender, (im)mobility, and social relations continually interact to reproduce risks and responses that are neither linear nor scale
neutral.

8. Notes
1. The study in Gabura was a part of the second author's PhD fieldwork [56] which examined the role of gender, social capital
and place attachments in climate change adaptation in coastal Bangladesh. Beyond the 25 stories used in this paper, the
original PhD fieldwork involved key informant interviews (43), focus group discussions (04) with local stakeholders and
questionnaire surveys to achieve the key objectives of the PhD fieldwork.
2. The study in Khulna was part of broader research by the first author looking into migrant politics of home in urban informal
settings. Another part of this research involves 17 migrant women who participated in a participatory photography method
which was extensively documented in the lead author's PhD thesis [53] and subsequent publications [10,64,65].
3. Loss of livelihoods in Gabura after Aila forced some men to pursue 3–6 months of employment in the Sundarbans for fishing,
crab, shrimp, honey, wax, firewood and household resource collection.
4. All names are anonymized.
5. This is the lowest tier in the local government of rural Bangladesh.
6. Many of these NGOs around that time were moving from microfinance schemes to livelihood projects designed to provide in-kind
support.
7. Bonding social capital is a horizontal tie and a sense of belonging associated with trust and connections among family, relatives
and close friends. Bridging relationships play an important role in connecting dissimilar groups with non-intimate individuals and
acquaintances (i.e., relatives, friends and neighbours). Linking social capital refers to the vertical relationships among community
insiders and outsiders [see 66,67].

Funding
The fieldwork in Gabura was funded by the University of Technology Sydney's Institute for Sustainable Futures International Re-
search Scholarship. The research in Khulna was supported by a Macquarie University Research Excellence Scholarship.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.

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A. Alam and M.B. Khalil International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 82 (2022) 103342

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