Gendered lives in transition: rethinking post-disaster temporary housing through women’s experiences from Antakya, Türkiye

This study investigates the gendered dimensions of everyday life in temporary housing (TH) areas established in Antakya, Hatay, following the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes in Türkiye. We argue that TH is not a neutral shelter but a governed socio-spatial environment in which planning and institutional rules reorganize care and social reproduction. Adopting a feminist urban planning perspective grounded in feminist political economy, the study examines how the design, governance, and social organization of TH areas reproduce existing gender inequalities. It also shows how temporary arrangements can embed chronic, gendered risk. Based on semi-structured interviews with 35 households and 16 public officials across four TH areas, the research reveals that women are largely excluded from decision-making processes. It also shows that caregiving responsibilities intensify because inadequate physical and social infrastructure shifts time, labor, and safety burdens onto women’s unpaid care work. Furthermore, emotional distress is exacerbated by spatial constraints and lack of privacy. Time poverty and constrained mobility limit access to work, education, and social life, producing routinized stress and loneliness. Yet, the study also identifies everyday practices of resilience, such as the formation of mutual support networks and spatial adaptations within TH units. These practices enable women to sustain household and community life despite institutional exclusions. These findings highlight the importance of integrating women’s lived experiences into post-disaster recovery frameworks across Türkiye’s long-term disaster trajectory. The study calls for gender-responsive planning that improves habitability and addresses structural inequalities in disaster governance through participation, safety standards, service linkages and trauma-informed support.