In August 2003, one of the largest wildfires in Canadian history struck near Kelowna, British Columbia and the surrounding Okanagan Valley, causing unprecedented damage. As Shelley Pacholok observes in this innovative study, the turbulence and extreme conditions that followed in the wake of this disaster destabilized an important area of social life - that of gender relations.

Into the Fire combines insights from gender studies and disaster studies to explore the extent to which notions of "masculinity" and "femininity" are challenged in the wake of crises. Pacholok focuses...