Gender, Conflict and Forced Migration
Forced migration is one of the most visible consequences of violent conflict in contemporary global politics. Wars, civil conflicts, ethnic violence, and political repression have displaced millions of people across borders and within states. Feminist scholars argue that forced migration is not a gender-neutral process; rather, conflict and displacement are experienced differently by women, men, and gender minorities due to pre-existing social hierarchies and power relations. Understanding forced migration through a gender lens reveals how violence, insecurity, and survival are structured by gender at every stage of displacement.
This unit examines the relationship between gender, conflict, and forced migration, highlighting how feminist International Relations (IR) expands conventional approaches to refugees, security, and humanitarian governance.
Conflict as a Gendered Process
Violent conflict itself is deeply gendered. Wars are fought within societies already marked by gender inequalities, which shape who fights, who flees, and who bears the burdens of survival. Men are often targeted for recruitment, detention, or killing, while women are exposed to sexual violence, forced displacement, and care responsibilities.
Feminist scholars argue that conflict does not suspend social norms; rather, it often intensifies patriarchal controls. Gender roles may shift temporarily, but violence reinforces hierarchies by normalizing domination and vulnerability.
Understanding forced migration therefore requires analyzing how conflict produces gender-specific risks and strategies of survival.
Forced Migration: Beyond Neutral Categories
Mainstream IR and refugee studies often treat refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) as homogeneous categories, focusing on numbers, borders, and legal status. Feminist IR critiques this approach for obscuring how gender shapes displacement.
Women are often responsible for children, the elderly, and the injured during flight, limiting their mobility and increasing exposure to exploitation. Men, by contrast, may be restricted by borders due to security profiling or conscription fears. Gender thus structures who can flee, how, and with what consequences.
Forced migration is not merely movement across space; it is a process embedded in gendered power relations.
Gender-Based Violence and Displacement
One of the most severe gendered consequences of forced migration is gender-based violence. Sexual violence is frequently used as a tactic of war to terrorize populations and drive displacement. During flight and in refugee camps, women and girls remain vulnerable to assault, trafficking, and exploitation.
Feminist scholars emphasize that such violence is not accidental but structurally linked to conflict and militarization. The breakdown of social protections, combined with armed presence and impunity, creates conditions of extreme insecurity.
Traditional security frameworks often overlook these realities, treating them as humanitarian issues rather than central concerns of international politics.
Women, Care Work, and Survival Strategies
Displacement dramatically increases women’s burden of care work. Women must secure food, shelter, healthcare, and education for families in precarious conditions. This labor is essential to community survival but remains undervalued and invisible in policy frameworks.
At the same time, displacement can open limited spaces for agency. Women may become heads of households, engage in informal economies, and organize community support networks. Feminist IR highlights this tension between vulnerability and agency, resisting simplistic portrayals of refugee women as passive victims.
Masculinities, Conflict, and Displacement
Feminist analysis also examines how forced migration affects men and masculinities. Conflict disrupts men’s socially expected roles as providers and protectors. In displacement, men may face unemployment, loss of status, and criminalization as security threats.
These pressures can produce frustration and trauma, sometimes resulting in violence within displaced communities. Recognizing the gendered impacts on men challenges stereotypes and contributes to more holistic understandings of displacement.
Securitization of Refugees and Gendered Control
In contemporary global politics, forced migration is increasingly securitized. Refugees are portrayed as threats to national security, social cohesion, and economic stability. This framing justifies border militarization, detention, and restrictive asylum policies.
Feminist scholars argue that securitization has gendered effects. Women’s mobility is restricted in the name of protection, while men are disproportionately subjected to suspicion and surveillance. Gendered stereotypes shape who is seen as deserving of protection and who is criminalized.
Securitization thus deepens vulnerability rather than ensuring safety.
Humanitarian Governance and Gender
Humanitarian responses to forced migration often claim neutrality, yet feminist critiques reveal how aid systems reproduce gender hierarchies. Camps are designed without considering women’s safety, privacy, or participation in decision-making.
Policies frequently treat women as dependents rather than political subjects, reinforcing paternalistic governance. Feminist IR argues that meaningful protection requires women’s inclusion in planning, leadership, and peacebuilding, not merely targeted assistance.
Postcolonial Feminist Perspectives
Postcolonial feminist scholars emphasize that forced migration must be situated within histories of colonialism, imperial intervention, and global inequality. Conflicts producing displacement are often linked to external interventions and arms flows.
Women in the Global South are frequently depicted as helpless victims, while Western states position themselves as rescuers. Feminist critiques expose these narratives as reinforcing global hierarchies and obscuring local resistance and agency.
Rethinking Protection and Security
Feminist IR calls for a shift from state-centric security to people-centered protection. This includes addressing the root causes of displacement—inequality, militarization, and exclusion—rather than focusing solely on borders.
Gender-sensitive approaches emphasize legal rights, safe migration pathways, access to livelihoods, and participation in decision-making. Security, from this perspective, is inseparable from dignity and social justice.
Conclusion: Gendering Forced Migration in International Relations
Gender, conflict, and forced migration are deeply interconnected. Displacement is shaped by gendered violence, labor, identities, and power relations at every stage—from conflict to flight to resettlement.
Feminist IR demonstrates that forced migration cannot be understood through numbers and borders alone. By centering gendered experiences and agency, feminist perspectives broaden the analytical and ethical scope of International Relations and point toward more just and sustainable responses to displacement.
References
- Tickner, J. Ann. Gender in International Relations.
- Enloe, Cynthia. Bananas, Beaches and Bases.
- Peterson, V. Spike. Gendered States.
- True, Jacqui. The Political Economy of Violence against Women.
- Yuval-Davis, Nira. Gender and Nation.
