Displaced Women in Settings of Continuing Armed Conflict

Citation:

Roe, Michael D. 1992. “Displaced Women in Settings of Continuing Armed Conflict.” Women & Therapy 13 (1-2): 89–10.

Author: Michael D. Roe

Abstract:

Based on interview data and observations primarily from Central America and the Philippines, this article reviews the psychosocial adaptation of women forced to flee their homes due to armed conflict, but who remain in settings of war violence. The pervasive danger and fear in such settings impedes progress toward psychological and social equilibrium. These women experience terror, a spectrum of war-related emotional traumas, gender and family role instabilities, and sexual vulnerabilities. These women may also experience empowerment in the midst of armed conflict through the formation of new communities in which they share the leadership, through filling essential roles within these communities, and through concretization, in which they both analyze and take action against political and economic oppression and gender subordination.

Keywords: empowerment, female-headed households, gender subordination, migration adaptation

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Health, Mental Health, Trauma, Sexual Violence Regions: Americas, Central America, Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Philippines

Year: 1992