Constructing ‘modern gendered civilised’ women and men: gender-mainstreaming in refugee camps

Gender mainstreaming in humanitarian programmes with forced migrants is based on a belief that such an approach will lead to greater gender equality, while raising the status of women through their ‘empowerment’. In this article, I focus on the activities of international and local humanitarian organisations in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya. I argue that the concepts of ‘gender’ and ‘women’ are often over-simplified and essentialised in gender mainstreaming, and this results in programmes which not only exacerbate gender asymmetries, but may also place women at risk.