Women, Children & Policy Narratives: Lessons from Alabama Hurricane Preparedness

• In Event: The Use of Narratives in Shaping Discourse and Beliefs in the Policy Process

Abstract

The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) is a popular approach to exploring the role of narratives in the policy process; however, the framework has largely overlooked women, children, and families as narrative audiences, characters, or storytellers. This paper reviews recent findings about gender, sex, family composition, and children as well as relevant policy process theory to develop expectations about the role of gender, families, and children in the U.S. narrative policy process. These expectations are used to generate a narrative experimental survey of Alabamians regarding hurricane preparedness and to propose future policy narratives crafted to encourage and remind families to prepare for hurricanes.

Author

• Holly Peterson, Louisiana State University