El Salvador - GFDRR

III. CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES | 97
TABLE 39. PERCENTAGE OF FEMALE HEADS OF HOUSEHOLDS
IN THE AFFECTED DEPARTMENTS
Departments
Percentage
La Libertad 32.6
San Salvador 36.2
Cuscatlán 34.8
La Paz 35.0
San Vicente 38.2
Source: Population and Housing Census, 2007, DIGESTYC.
To this backdrop of the socioeconomic status of women living in disaster conditions, the high percentage
of teenage mothers should be added; this percentage may be inferred if one remembers that the
proportion of births among females between the ages of 10 and 19 is around 30% of the total among
women of reproductive age.
Another consequence of the disasters that directly affects women is the increased work that falls on
them (caring for children, the ill and the elderly, and work to keep households and shelters operating),
which is not remunerated by any institution. This increase is added, for example, to the time that women
and girls must spend in their daily lives, especially in rural areas, carrying water for family needs (it has
been observed that those households that lack water services spend an average 9% of their productive
time collecting water, and that the population living in extreme poverty spends even more time collecting
water, up to 14% of its productive time). Water coverage in homes of affected municipalities can illustrate
this situation.
To reveal the disaster’s impact on women and the economic contribution they make to society without
receiving payment for such work, it is useful to conduct a monetary assessment of the increase in women’s
work as a result of the disaster. Considering the percentage of women from age 15 to over age 50 in
houses totally or partially destroyed in the affected municipalities, the calculation of their work shows a total
of nearly US$3.5 million. A three-month period of abnormal living conditions, five more hours per day
and an hourly salary equivalent to that of community, social and health services have been considered.
From November 16 to 25, 2009 there was a drastic reduction in the number of women and girls in
shelters. On the former date the number was 7,151, and on the latter date 2,663. No general survey
has been conducted on safety conditions and the coverage of needs of women and girls in shelters; this
should constitute a lesson learned for future events since women and girls have specific requirements for
better coping with these dramatic situations (separate bathrooms for each sex; sanitary napkins and underwear
to maintain hygiene; good lighting in service areas to avoid sexual aggression, etc.).