Gendered experiences of refugee and displaced women in Africa

Abstract

Conflict, war, and human rights abuses remain the most potent cause of forced human displacement globally and on the African continent. Up to 57% of all refugees on the African continent are women, but in spite of this, women often constitute an afterthought in international law and states policy designs or are only added and stirred in the prevalent liberal humanitarian practice. Eschewing essentialist discourses, this chapter critiques these trends from feminist intersectionality and gendered continuum of violence perspectives. It analyzes how African refugee and displaced women's identities and positions within state and international legal, policy and humanitarian structure produce a gendered continuum of displacement experiences from the pre-war to the conflict and postconflict periods. It further posits pathways for furthering the study of women's displacement within African women's studies.