Resilience in a cultural context: Taiwanese female earthquake survivors

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to examine how females survive natural disaster in non-western culture and to gain understanding of their unique experiences in rebuilding their lives. In September 1999, a major earthquake, named ‘921 Earthquake,’ measuring 7.3 on the Richter Scale occurred in Taiwan. Many people survived, struggling a great deal in their efforts to reconstruct their lives. Five years after this earthquake, many survivors, including women, were reported to have rebuilt self-sufficient lives. Given the vulnerability of women and their greater difficulties in resuming their lives, an important question was how these women were able to be successful in this endeavor. Utilizing a grounded theory approach, 16 female 921 Earthquake survivors who had been helped by social workers, no longer received government aid and had successfully regained their selfsufficiency, voluntarily participated in this study. The study findings revealed that the coping strategies guided by female gender norms in the family, embedded in Taiwanese culture, including: children’s needs are the first priority as a maternal role norm; men working outside and women working inside; and female gender norms of supporting the family when husbands could not, were the major resources participants accessed and utilized to successfully cope with the difficulties after the 921 Earthquake. The participants’ narratives demonstrated that cultural norms can serve as coping resources for survivors. Implications for social work practice are addressed.

Keywords

Coping strategies cultural norms female earthquake survivors grounded theory approach Taiwan

Introduction

When people survive natural disasters, what they face in reconstructing their lives can be extremely challenging and can affect their well-being (Greene and Greene, 2009). Anderson and Manual (1994) found that female survivors often experienced greater psychological stress than males. Utilizing a qualitative design to investigate the experiences of female natural disaster survivors in Pakistan and Scotland respectively, Bari (1998) as well as Fordham and Ketteridge (1998) found that disadvantaged women were more vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters due to their cumulative vulnerability. For example, poor women often lived in disaster-prone areas due to insufficient economic resources, and were consequently more likely to experience natural disasters and to have more difficulty rebuilding their lives afterwards. Although many female survivors were negatively affected by disasters and suffered more than their male counterparts in the reconstruction, a striking finding was that many survivors who had been helped to strengthen their capacities, received assistance or utilized their social relationships to deal with adversity and were able to return to normal functioning (Enarson and Morrow, 1998; Fothergill, 2003). While these studies made significant contributions, the findings are limited to female survivors in Western and South Asia areas. Natural disasters occur around the world, including Taiwan and Japan, both located in East Asia. A search of electronic databases, for example ERIC and the Social Science index indicates that missing from the literature are the experiences of female survivors in these areas, pointing to the need for further research.

The 921 Earthquake in Taiwan

On 21 September 1999 at 1.47 am, a major earthquake, known as the ‘921 Earthquake,’ measuring 7.3 on the Richter Scale occurred in Taiwan. An estimated 2474 people died, 11,305 were injured and 1,10l,000 houses were destroyed (Relief Disaster Foundation, 2011). Many people survived, suffering tremendously in their efforts to reconstruct their lives, for example not being able to return to work due to severe injuries and losing property as a result of an inability to pay home mortgages. In response, the Executive Yuan of Taiwan’s Government established the 921 Earthquake Post-Disaster Recovery Commission to coordinate relief work. The Commission developed policy strategies such as shelters to address survivors’ needs (Relief Disaster Foundation, 2011).

Women survivors recounted experiences that demonstrated specific abilities to survive and that reflected gendered norms. In one example, female earthquake survivors in Chungliao township formed a group to sell items colored with dye from local natural plants. This enabled them to reconstruct their lives and help the local economy begin to flourish (Relief Disaster Foundation, 2011). This story was considered successful by Taiwan’s Relief Disaster Foundation and the public because these women were previously considered ‘marginal’ villagers whose skill in dying clothes was not worth monetary compensation in a predominantly patriarchal Taiwanese cultural context. This example was considered uncommon in Taiwan’s social context because the women’s strengths had not been publicly recognized previously. People were therefore astonished by the strength of these women. Given the vulnerability of women in response to natural disasters and their greater difficulties in resuming their lives, an important question was raised: How were these 921 Earthquake female survivors able to be successful in a Taiwanese cultural context that is predominantly patriarchal, in which females were provided less resources and were socialized to follow males? The aim of the current study is to examine how females survive an earthquake in Taiwanese (non-western) culture and to gain an understanding of their unique experiences in rebuilding their lives. The results will contribute to the knowledge base of social work practice with female natural disaster survivors.

Resilience

A common definition of resilience refers to abilities that help individuals to withstand and rebound from disruptive life challenges, with good outcomes (Garmezy, 1993; Walsh, 2003). Resilience involves dynamic processes that promote positive adaptation within the context of adversity (Luther et al., 2000). Our understanding of resilience has recently shifted from the individual to community and national levels which emphasize the uniqueness of geographical context, collective experiences and local knowledge (Hultman and Bozmoski, 2006). As the aim of this study is to explore individual resilience, this literature review is limited to the individual level. According to Ungar and colleagues (2008), there are four perspectives related to resilience. Only three perspectives will be reviewed. The fourth perspective discusses developmental assets that facilitate traumatized youth’s resilience and is therefore not relevant to this study.

The first perspective focuses solely on individual qualities and abilities, such as self-efficacy, sense of identity, sense of humor, and flexibility in a person’s use of coping strategies (Selby et al., 2009). According to this perspective, resilience refers to an individual’s pattern that helps him/her effectively adapt to adversity (Bartelt, 1994). The second perspective represents a shift in understanding of the construct of resilience, from a focus on the individual to a focus on risk and protective factors across an individual’s world including the interpersonal, environmental, and sociocultural levels as well as the individual (Walsh, 2003). Accordingly, in this view, there is considerably more emphasis on understanding how intrapersonal, interpersonal and ecological protective factors and coping resources buffer a person with respect to risks (Arrington and Wilson, 2000; Greene and Greene, 2009).

A third and more recent understanding focuses on resources in the environment which allow survivors to cope with adversity and on the ways individuals navigate and access these resources as well as on how communities provide these resources (Ungar et al., 2008). According to this perspective, individuals facing adversity will purposefully or serendipitously access and navigate available coping resources, for example family, peer group, community and social system resources to bring coherence to their lives and promote well-being (Ungar, 2005). This perspective, which has been widely adopted as a way of understanding how individuals from diverse backgrounds cope with adversity, often incorporates cultural and social ecological lenses to discuss resilience (Ungar et al., 2007). A growing body of research examining this third perspective indicates that identification with the core values and beliefs of a survivor’s culture may be a protective factor which contributes to resilience. As these core values and beliefs appear to provide a way for survivors to make sense of traumatic experiences, adherence to cultural values and beliefs strengthens their ability to maintain resilience in the face of adversity (Lee et al., 2010; Ring and Carmichael, 2006). A growing body of research examining natural disaster survivors indicates that this third perspective is useful in understanding the resilience of survivors and in developing programs to assist survivors (Bava et al., 2010; Green et al., 2006).

In incorporating the social ecological lens that is different from the second perspective, the third perspective suggests that each individual occupies a complex ecological niche, with a unique position based on factors such as gender, economic status, life stage and culture (Walsh, 2003). How each individual copes varies according to his/her ecological niche, whereby survivors use particular resources based on the particular community in which they live as well as their particular life stage and gender.

Several studies on disaster survivors’ resilience found that family and culture contain rich resources for disaster survivors to cope with adversity (Agani et al., 2010; Rajkumar et al., 2008). Rajkumar et al. (2008) employed a qualitative study to understand the determinants of resilience of people who survived a 2004 Asian Tsunami. Findings were that participants adopted their cultural wisdom to reconstruct meanings of suffering and to develop coping strategies. For example, they believed what elders had told them, specifically that they would dedicate their lives to the sea in return because as fishermen they received so much from the sea; the elders’ words helped to ease their fears and consequently combat adversity. They also adopted religious beliefs to make sense of their survival. Conclusions were that the participants valued cultural and spiritual practices and community resources and that culturally grounded interventions may hasten the recovery process. Agani and colleagues (2010) reviewed several studies and concluded that family values, heritage, knowledge of stories of survivors from previous generations and the ability to draw on these stories enabled survivors to reconnect their transitional pathways and thus enhance their resilience. Informed by these findings, Agani and colleagues (2010) suggested that knowing and reconnecting to stories about survivors from past generations is a significant strategy to cope with various kinds of human suffering. These studies on the resilience of individual natural disaster survivors revealed that their cultural beliefs were effective mechanisms that facilitated resilience, leading to the recommendation that interventions should incorporate survivors’ cultural beliefs (Agani et al., 2010; Rajkumar et al., 2008).

Evidence suggests that the survivors’ vulnerabilities and resilience should be analyzed within their socio-economic situations as well as their broader socio-economic contexts and that having a good socio-economic situation before experiencing a natural disaster served as a protective factor, with reduced psychiatric morbidity and greater resources to rebuild and thus facilitate resilience (Hultman and Bozmoski, 2006; Lee et al., 2009; McFarlane et al., 1997). The socio-political and economic climates of survivors’ contexts before and after disasters profoundly impact their recovery (Banks and Ackerman, 2010) and must not be overlooked when exploring resilience and recovery.

Methodology

Given the exploratory nature of the questions posed in this study, qualitative methodology was considered most suitable (Creswell, 2007). A grounded theory approach was utilized to enable researchers to generate categories from data, specify relationships of categories and generate overarching concepts of successful reconstruction (Charmaz, 2006).

Recruitment

The 921 Earthquake in 1999 mainly affected central Taiwan, which was selected as the site of this study. Social workers who worked in Taichung county government, Taiwan played a significant role in helping 921 Earthquake survivors. The first author therefore contacted the Taichung county government which agreed to collaborate on this research. The research received approval by the Taichung county government. The selection criteria for participation were (1) female, (2) over 19 (adult), (3) lived in central Taiwan during the time of the 921 earthquake, and (4) had not received social assistance since 2004. There are reasons the criterion of not receiving social assistance was included. Resilience in this study refers to the abilities, including utilizing coping resources, which help individuals to withstand and rebound from disruptive life challenges, with good outcomes (Garmezy, 1993; Walsh, 2003). Without exception, all survivors of the 921 Earthquake received different forms of social assistance, such as economic or housing assistance from Taiwan’s governments, or food, clothing or psychological support from philanthropic agencies. When social workers in the government or agencies concluded based on their assessment that survivors had rebuilt stable lives, they stopped providing any form of assistance. Survivors who had stopped receiving social assistance five years after the 921 Earthquake, (and before this study was conducted), were considered to have successfully rebuilt their lives and thus met the definition of resilience in this study.

The first author explained the participant selection criteria to social workers who had helped 921 Earthquake survivors and asked them to contact survivors who met the criteria in order to seek clients’ consent to be contacted. Once consent was obtained, the first author contacted those clients to explain the study and obtain their consent to participate in the study. The first author explained that the aim of the study was to explore their experiences over the previous five or six years and they were encouraged to talk freely about all kinds of experiences in those past years.

Participants

Purposive and snowball sampling were used to select participants. Six female 921 Earthquake survivors who met the selection criteria agreed to participate when recruitment was first mentioned. After each interview, the author asked the participant to introduce acquaintances in similar situations if they were willing. Data collection ended after 16 interviews, when saturation was met and no new findings emerged.

Participants comprised 16 Taiwanese female 921 Earthquake survivors, aged 30 to 55 years. One participant’s husband died in the earthquake. Both parents of another participant died, leaving herself and her younger sister both of whom were severely injured. Another participant’s daughter died. Four participants were single parents (three separated or divorced, one widowed) and 12 participants were married with children. Participants’ occupations were as follows: three were high school teachers, two worked in the government, four described themselves as housewives, and seven worked as restaurant staff, cleaning staff, and clerks.

Data collection

Between August 2006 and July 2007, in-depth interviews were conducted in an office located in a senior service center near the participants’ village. An interview guide included questions such as ‘Tell me about the reconstruction process after 921 Earthquake’; ‘What strategies did you use to cope with difficulties in reconstructing your life?’ and ‘What was the effect of adopting this strategy?’ Each interview lasted 1.5 to 2 hours and was conducted in Chinese. All of the respondents participated in one interview. Interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim in Chinese. The researcher wrote field notes after each interview to enrich the data analysis. Since Chinese is the researcher’s first language the transcripts were read and analyzed in Chinese to maintain the dialogue’s meaning. The quotations used in this article have been translated.

Data analysis

Line-by-line review of the transcripts was conducted and first-level codes (descriptors of important components in the interviews), including in vivo codes (participants’ language) (Creswell, 2007: 153), were noted in the margins. The next step comprised constant comparison (Charmaz, 2006; Glaser and Strauss, 1967), and refining and organizing the first-level codes into categories. The first author who had previously conducted several qualitative studies on Taiwanese women was the principal investigator and the person who primarily conducted the coding during the line-by-line review of transcripts, the first level of coding and the constant comparison. As all transcripts were in Chinese in order not to distort the meaning of any of the dialogue, two peers of the first author whose first language was Chinese served as coders. These peers, one of whom was a social work practitioner and one who had been a social work practitioner and was currently a social work PhD candidate, read the first author’s coding to make sure the coding captured the meaning of the coded paragraphs. When differences arose, the coders discussed the codes until they reached agreement. For example, coders had different views of whether ‘female gender norms of supporting the family when husbands are not able to,’ was a positive coping strategy or was a strategy indicating abuse of the participants. The first author reviewed literature regarding Taiwanese working-class female gender roles and discussed concepts in literature with the other coders, which led them to reach an agreement. While coding interview data, the first author checked field notes to ensure data analysis results. For example, when the theme of ‘putting their children’s needs as the first priority’ emerged from the data, the first author reviewed her written reflections of participants. The first author’s field notes helped to gain deeper insight and meaning of this coping strategy. Theoretical coding was undertaken to identify higher-level codes and relationships among categories and to ensure saturation of categories (Charmaz, 2006). When data analysis moved to identifying higher codes and relationships among categories, the first author returned to the literature and found that the concepts of resilience organized all codes and integrated the relationships among categories well. Resilience was thus utilized as the theoretical framework.

Results

The findings revealed that the participants demonstrated resilience. Coping strategies guided by female gender norms in the family embedded in Taiwanese culture, were the major resources participants utilized and were transformed into the ability of participants to successfully cope with the difficulties that arose as they worked to reconstruct lives after the 921 Earthquake. Three categories reflecting the coping resources based on Taiwanese female gender norms in the family emerged.

Children’s needs are the first priority as a maternal role norm

Participants (P2, P5, P8, P12, P13, P15 and P16) who had school-aged children put their children’s needs as the first priority in the aftermath. The stories of Participants P5 and P13 clearly show how they adopted this strategy. Participant P5’s husband worked in a power plant and it was her responsibility to take care of her husband’s parents and her own primary school-aged children. Her husband was at work when the 921 Earthquake occurred. Afterwards, during the blackout, she led her elderly parents-in-law and her two young children out of their house that had half-collapsed. This participant described feeling very scared but immediately realizing that she needed to take good care of her parents-in-law and her young children, both physically and emotionally. She thus did not reveal her own fears. She said: ‘As a mother, I have to protect my children, I cannot show my own fears, my children will psychologically feel safe if I am calm’ (P5). Being a responsible, caring, and calm daughter-in-law and mother became her major role in the following days while in the shelter and later during the reconstruction days while her husband worked constantly. Participant P5 worked hard to maintain the family’s routines, which meant preparing meals and ensuring her children attended school. In addition, she reported spending a tremendous amount of time talking with her children about their feelings and thoughts in order to diminish the negative impact of the earthquake. She said, ‘for a half year, I walked and talked with my children every day, we discussed what happened in the earthquake, I believed this would help my children overcome their fears by talking about what they saw and how they felt’ (P5). When this participant reflected during the interview, she said what occurred to her during the evacuation and reconstruction stage was that she needed to figure out what a daughter-in-law, wife, and mother should do and she went about doing her best to fulfill these responsibilities. This structure helped her organize matters in the aftermath. Notwithstanding a short period of emotional and sleeping problems, she considered herself to have successfully overcome the difficulties. Female gender norms, in particular the act of putting her children’s needs as the first priority as a mother combined with her responsibility as a daughter-in-law to care for her in-laws, served as coping resources for this participant and enhanced her own well-being and that of her family.

The participants in this study differed significantly in the amount of economic resources available to them and their families. When economic resources were limited, participants used these limited resources to first meet their children’s needs. Participant P13 described this priority. She characterized herself as a ‘submissive wife’ prior to the earthquake, which she explained was how she maintained her marriage. Although her condominium building half-collapsed in the 921 Earthquake, none of her family members was injured. She described her husband as ‘ignoring’ the needs of their high school children after the earthquake. She said that, as a mother, she needed to put her children’s needs first especially in the aftermath. At this stage, P13 considered the role of protective mother to be more important than that of submissive wife. She consequently fought with her husband until she got him to agree to put their children’s needs first. She explained, ‘what I cared most about was my daughters’ needs in the aftermath. One of my daughters was preparing entrance exams for senior high school, and she needed to settle down and prepare. I fought with my husband which I seldom did because he did not care about what the girls needed’ (P13). She thus insisted on spending money first on helping her school-aged daughters return to school and their routines. Her view was that, when resources were few, the children’s needs must come first, followed by the needs of adults. At the time of the study, her two daughters had been accepted into college which made her happy.

Men work outside and women work inside

Participants (P2, P3, P4, P5, P9, P10, P12 and P15) whose husbands’ earnings were the major source of their family incomes reported that their coping strategies during the reconstruction stage could be described as, ‘men work outside and women work inside.’ Participant P9’s narrative illustrates how she adopted this strategy. She had two adult children and reported that their savings allowed them to rebuild the orchard garden through which they earned their living. After the earthquake, the family reverted to its routine which entailed her husband taking care of the orchard garden and the participant taking care of the household. She relayed, ‘in the reconstruction, I was responsible for cleaning the house and preparing meals, and my husband was responsible for rebuilding the orchard garden’ (P9). This participant added that her relationship with her husband was ‘nice’ and ‘nurturing,’ and that she could rely on him, which P9 believed gave her the strength and courage to face difficulties: ‘The division of work gave me the sense of togetherness, and thus it gave me strength to face challenges’ (P9).

Participant P15’s story further illustrates the strategy of ‘men work outside and women work inside.’ Participant P15 said that many decisions needed to be made during reconstruction, for example when and where to rebuild their house. P15’s husband took responsibility for addressing the financial issues of rebuilding their house, while P15 took responsibility for the care of family members. P15 expressed her long-term belief that the whole family benefits from this couple division of household work. Indeed, her family was rebuilt by their sharing of household work.

Female gender norms of supporting the family when husbands could not

When there were few resources available in the family, participants reported feeling the need to turn to the norm of supporting the family when husbands could not, in order to reconstruct their family as evident in the following stories.

Some participants (P1, P6, P7, P8, P11, P13 and P14) did not have many financial resources and their earnings were the major source of income in the family after the 921 Earthquake. They reported adopting the norm requiring women to support the family to rebuild and attributed their ‘toughness’ to their past life experiences. These participants either were divorced or their husbands had worked at a local business and lost jobs as a result of the crash of local business after the 921 Earthquake. The participants were therefore required to obtain employment to support their families. As the participants were low-skilled labor workers, they needed to be employed in several jobs to support their families. Participant P8 who was representative of these participants, held three jobs: she was an administrative assistant in the morning, cleaned house at lunch, and worked as a massage therapist in the evening. This participant reported that she grew up in a disadvantaged family with few resources. She believed that her childhood fostered her sense that she could overcome challenges through her ‘toughness’ and ‘persistence.’ She explained, ‘I did not have any support since I was a child, so I learned to do whatever jobs that were available and made the best of my time doing whatever jobs that were available from when I was young’ (P8). She utilized this ‘toughness’ to hold three jobs at the same time and used her earnings to rebuild a new home for her family. Participant P7 relayed a similar story and asserted, ‘this toughness is unique to working-class women.’

Participants who adopted the gender norm of supporting their families when their husbands could not have successfully rebuilt their families, reported suffering considerably in the process due to overwork and overburden. It was important to them to reveal that they sacrificed themselves to rebuild.

Discussion

The theme of participants adopting culturally prescribed gender role norms emerged from the data. The ways in which culture provides a major coping resource therefore became a focus of this study. Positing that culture is often referred to in discussing a ‘minority’ whereas the person who is White is considered to be ‘culture-free,’ Park (2005) contends that the discourse of ‘culture’ evident in social work journals seems to marginalize ‘minority’ populations. Park (2005) posits that researchers should critically examine the discourse of the concept of culture in their research. The discourse of culture utilized in this article does not consider Taiwanese culture a minority or marginal. Culture is commonly defined as ‘an inventory of set traits or identifiable markers… a body of knowledge’ (Park, 2005: 24), a set of beliefs, learned behaviors, meaningful aspects of human behaviors and a repertoire of strategies of actions (Sewell, 2005). Accordingly, we defined ‘culture’ as behavioral patterns and meaning learned and relevant to particular social contexts. Norms that regulate behaviors for both genders are a part of culture.

As Taiwanese culture is embedded with Confucian ideology, several concepts of Confucian ideology must be addressed in order to understand the participants’ coping strategies. According to Confucian ideology, humanity (Jen), rituals (Li) and the Way (Tao) are important concepts and becoming humane (Cheng Jen) is the highest value. Becoming humane is a process of adapting to the inevitable tasks of life (Tu, 1979). Humanity, which is within oneself, is discovered through self-cultivation, and is inseparable from caring for others and assuming social responsibility (Tu, 1979). The ongoing effort to become a virtuous person who follows rituals in relational contexts is therefore highly emphasized (Tweed and Lehman, 2002). The Way serves as a moral code of conduct governing behavior (Tu, 1976). Cultivating oneself and practicing rituals in the family are considered fundamental to actualizing humanity. Consequently, practicing rituals harmonizes interpersonal relationships and enhances the well-being of family, neighbors and society (Dai, 2009). Those who practice rituals and try to reach humanity are called ‘gentlemen’ (Jung-Zi, both genders included). When faced with difficulties and disasters, the emphasis is on survivors seeking the causes of failures within themselves rather than ‘blaming the Heaven above or the other men below’ (Tu, 1976: 110). A culture may be uniquely associated with a particular society or identifiable groups (Sewell, 2005). While many countries are influenced by Confucian ideology, participants in this study comprised only individuals from Taiwan and thus the particular influence of Confucian ideology cannot be generalized.

The primary coping resource revealed in this study informed by Confucian ideology/Taiwanese culture is the family-centered value that is central to actualizing humanity. Family is the first priority of Asian women (Tsang and Sung, 2005; Yoshihama, 2005), including Taiwanese women. A good decision embedded in Confucian background often is a decision that a family’s well-being is taken into consideration (Chan and Leong, 1994). According to Confucian ideology, familial rituals include women being submissive wives, obedient daughters and caring, self-sacrificing mothers. The ideology regulates that married women should put their husband’s family as their first priority. When they become mothers, being a parent becomes the most important priority (Xiong, 1998). Self-sacrifice is considered a virtue of women and a way of coping with difficulties. This cultural prescription helps explain the participants’ main coping resources, which comprised the family-centered cultural premise. Included in this cultural prescription are the search for causes within themselves and the use of virtues and the Way as coping mechanisms. This corresponds with the participants overlooking their own needs and attempting to search for their inner strengths to fulfill their maternal roles and responsibilities.

Rituals in Confucian ideology emphasize that the virtue for men is to lead and represent the family, whereas the virtue for women is to follow (Lee, 1985, Tang and Cheung, 1997). Accordingly, ‘men work outside and women work inside’ represents the division of household work (Leung and Chang, 1994). This division of household work continues to be practiced by a majority of Taiwanese families, in particular, when a husband’s earnings represent the family’s major source of financial support (Tung and Yang, 2004). Such division of household work was practiced by participants whose husbands could support their families both before and after the 921 Earthquake and was understood as a coping strategy during reconstruction. Confucian ideology helps to explain participants’ coping strategies, comprising the rituals related to the couple’s relationship. Included in such rituals are the gendered division of household work and the ideology that observing couple relationship rituals and assuming their responsibilities respectively enhances the family’s well-being. Participants who reported adopting the prescription that ‘men work outside and women work inside’ also depicted their relationships with their husbands as nurturing and as having a sense of togetherness. This sense of togetherness seemed to contribute to their courage to rebuild.

Paradoxically, in examining these findings it must be noted that a critique of this gendered division of labor is that it not only disproportionately distributes care and household work devalued by patriarchal society to women, but that it perpetuates the subordinate status of women. Underlying the division of labor is the significantly greater power and advantages for men together with women’s associated lack of power and advantage (Kim, 2009). The gendered division of labor is reproduced at individual, familial, market and social levels, producing and maintaining gender inequality. Such gender-segregated culture and associated female disadvantage places women at heightened risk during times of crisis and disaster (Enarson and Scanlon, 1999). Women’s lack of voice and of resources at all levels of the system significantly increases their vulnerability in disasters such as the 921 Earthquake (Enarson and Scanlon, 1999). Although participants reported that this cultural prescription helped them to rebuild after the earthquake, the risks integral in this division of labor must be considered. Specifically, women are likely to be quite vulnerable in such crises as a result of their subordinate stature in relation to their husbands. While cultural prescription emerged in the current study as a coping strategy, this finding must be examined carefully and requires further study.

When the functions of the family, in particular those of husband and wife, cannot meet the requirement of family rituals in Confucian ideology, searching for inner strength is an alternate option. Taiwanese cultural norms therefore require women to support their families during times of financial crisis (Lee, 1985). Gender norms regarding the working-class require women to enter the labor market as soon as they can and to thus sacrifice their educational opportunities for their brothers should there be limited family resources (Chu et al., 2007; Gates, 1987). Struggling to deal with harsh economic situations at a young age, Taiwanese working-class women may develop a characteristic known as ‘toughness’ due to working in low-paid, low status, physically exhausting jobs and enduring suffering (Gates, 1987). Participants who had experienced economically disadvantaged childhoods and identified as working-class reported being socialized according to the Taiwanese female gender norms whereby women must support their families and develop ‘toughness’ and make sacrifices should their husbands not be able to support their families. The female gender norm regulations and their economically disadvantaged childhood experiences may explain why participants who identified as working-class said that ‘toughness to overcome family financial hardship’ constituted their unique coping resource.

Social class, which refers to one’s position in the social hierarchy, may influence the development and expression of particular knowledge, beliefs and attitudes (Steward and Ostrove, 1993). Under these unique influences, people in a particular social class will develop self-concept and views of their lives that are unique to their social class (Ostrove and Long, 2001). Consistent with the concept of social class, the findings indicated that although participants utilized Taiwanese female gender norms as coping resources, the particular regulations they adopted varied based on their social and economic situations. Corresponding to the findings of Banks and Ackerman (2010) as well as Hultman and Bozmoski (2006), it emerged that survivors’ socio-economic situations complicated their recovery. What remains to be determined is how to prevent the negative effects of adopting these coping resources.

The participants’ responses demonstrated that they followed Confucian ideology to cope with adversity and reach resilience, and to act as ‘gentlemen’ as directed in Confucian ideology. Their responses demonstrated what several researchers (Agani et al., 2010; Lee et al., 2010; Rajkumar et al., 2008; Ring and Carmichael, 2006; Ungar et al., 2008) have suggested, namely that environmental factors, including cultural norms can serve as coping resources for survivors and can facilitate their ability to cope with adversity. Consistent with Walsh (2003), participants chose coping resources based on their ecological niche, in particular female gender norms embedded in Taiwanese culture appeared to guide participants as they organized what they should do in the midst of chaos.

Limitations

Due to the exploratory nature of this study, the findings cannot be generalized to other populations of survivors. Based on the descriptions and quotes derived from the interviews however, it is reasonable to utilize the findings in similar contexts (Lincoln and Guba, 1985). As resilience is not static but rather dynamic and the earthquake had long-term effects, there are several benefits and limitations to the timing of the data collection. The benefits include interviewing participants six years after the 921 Earthquake, a time period that is sufficient for participants to reconstruct and develop stable and resilient lives, yet with memories of the reconstruction process fresh. However, participants were continuing to work on recovering from problems caused by the 921 Earthquake at the time of this study, for example, healing their psychological and physical wounds. Participants may therefore reach other life conditions in the future that were not revealed at the point of data collection.

Conclusion and implications for social work practice

This study indicated how cultural norms embedded with Confucian ideologies served as coping resources and facilitated survivors’ resilience and helped the female survivors and their families recover from the traumatic experiences of the 921 Earthquake. Based on the findings, we draw implications for social work practice with female natural disaster survivors:

Interventions and policies should incorporate survivors’ cultural values to facilitate resilience. In particular, female survivors with cultural backgrounds embedded in Confucian ideology tended to utilize virtues to cope, which included prioritizing their families in the process of reconstruction. A focus of intervention and policy must be understanding and addressing this situation, in order to support these women in their efforts to fulfill their familial roles while reconstructing their families without sacrificing their own well-being.

The working-class female survivors tended to be more negatively influenced by natural disasters. Although working-class female survivors demonstrated resilience to a degree by adopting what they labeled ‘toughness’ to cope, these participants suffered and sacrificed significantly. Reducing the negative effects of adopting ‘toughness’ should be a focus of natural disaster relief policies and interventions, for example by implementing economic assistance and developing accompanying policies.

Future research is required to explore the prescription, ‘men work outside and women work inside’ as a coping strategy for female survivors. This is important as participants talked about adopting this strategy to rebuild after the 921 Earthquake.

In conclusion, exploration of the particular coping strategies of diverse cultures will illuminate the associated meaning, benefits and challenges of such strategies for particular cultures. Findings will contribute to a knowledge base and inform social work interventions with disaster survivors around the world.

Footnotes

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Council, Taiwan (Grant Number NSC94-2412-H-029-013).

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