Socionatural disasters are highly demanding episodes for the affected populations; however, there are groups that, due to their characteristics, may be more exposed to inequalities, such as women. The general objective of this paper is to analyze the emergency and the reconstruction process of the 2010 earthquake and tsunami in Chile, from a critical perspective that considers social factors from a gender approach based mainly on the experiences of the women victims of the town of Arauco in the Bío-Bío Region. It is evident that in the framework of a subsidiary and highly centralized State, responses are generated in disconnection with the territories and population affected by the disaster. Thus, under these conditions, women are forced to assume leadership and community care roles as a mechanism of resistance and subsistence in the face of the state policy limitations. As a result, the sexual division of labor increases to the detriment of women, who are highly demanded during the process.