Book contents
- Difficult Life in a Refugee Camp
- Difficult Life in a Refugee Camp
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Images
- Acknowledgments
- Maps
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Gender-Based Violence in the Camp and Beyond
- 3 Humanitarian Aid and the Camp Landscape
- 4 Changing Gender Relations in the Camp
- 5 Coping with the Difficult Life in the Refugee Camp
- 6 Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Changing Gender Relations in the Camp
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2021
- Difficult Life in a Refugee Camp
- Difficult Life in a Refugee Camp
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Images
- Acknowledgments
- Maps
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Gender-Based Violence in the Camp and Beyond
- 3 Humanitarian Aid and the Camp Landscape
- 4 Changing Gender Relations in the Camp
- 5 Coping with the Difficult Life in the Refugee Camp
- 6 Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Do gender roles and relations change upon displacement and during refugees’ encampment, and if so how? By drawing on Hearn’s theory of the hegemony of men as its analytical matrix, this chapter addresses gender systems pre-flight and in Uganda’s Kyaka II, and explores the perceptions of women, men, teenager girls and boys, as well as of aid workers. Systems pre-flight were widely noted to be patriarchal—with men as the hegemonic actor to whom women and youth should submit—while practiced differently across ethnic groups. Such tendencies were also widely shared as ‘normal’ in the camp, but shifts therein did occur. In addition to some men accepting and others contesting the use of force as a legitimate social practice to maintain their dominance, many women in Kyaka II depicted their various roles; teenage girls and boys tended to find their peers to be rather equal meanwhile, but expressed patriarchal perceptions regarding adults. Gender relations were (re)negotiated, and different patterns hereof arose in Kyaka II. Through the nature of the humanitarian support provided, aid workers were influential too. It is argued that they assigned roles, but at the same time hindered men and women from fulfilling them; with their power, aid workers figuratively also became part of the gender systems on-site.
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- Difficult Life in a Refugee CampGender, Violence, and Coping in Uganda, pp. 146 - 187Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021