Heads above Water: Gender, Class, and Family in the Grand Forks Flood - Softcover

Fothergill, Alice

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0791461580 ISBN 13: 9780791461587

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 2004

Synopsis

An in-depth exploration of women's lives after a natural disaster.

Heads above Water tells the stories of women and their families who survived the Grand Forks, North Dakota, flood of 1997, one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. This book describes the challenges women faced and explores the importance of class, race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability in their disaster recovery. The women found themselves face-to-face with social and familial upheaval, emotional and physical trauma, precarious economic and social status, and feelings of loss and violation. By exploring the experiences of these women, author Alice Fothergill contributes to broader sociological discussions about women's changing roles, the stigma of needing and receiving assistance, family relationships under stress, domestic violence, downward mobility, and the importance of "home" to one's identity and sense of self. Heads above Water offers poignant insight into women's everyday lives in an extraordinary time.

About this title

About the Author

Alice Fothergill is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Vermont.

Edition details

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0791461580
• ISBN 13: 9780791461587
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 282