Gender and Food Security: How Displacement Can Disrupt Traditional Roles in Agriculture-Dependent Communities
Publisher: The Online Journal of the Migration Policy Institute
Author(s): Gracsious Maviza, Joyce Takaindisa, Mandlenkosi Maphosa, and Thea Synnestvedt
Date: 2025
Topics: Gender, Land, Livelihoods, Protection and Access to Justice
When people are displaced, the structures of everyday life are disrupted. Existing gender roles and responsibilities often both become more intense and shape how individuals respond to their new circumstances.
Amid climate change, one domain in which these shifts manifest is in securing and preparing food. Often, displacement crises are accompanied by strained food systems; in many cases, people from agricultural communities move to areas where resources are already scarce and where infrastructure is limited, adding pressure to food, land, and water. In these situations, women often assume new roles as providers and decisionmakers, while men lose their status as breadwinners. Furthermore, many people may be forced to flee without their spouses, often making women both the primary caregivers to children and responsible for household nutritional needs. These gendered shifts can lead to opportunities—as women drive resilience and develop innovative practices for distributing and cultivating food under constrained conditions—and also challenges, such as increased workloads and exposure to gender-based violence and other risks. Risk of gender-based violence is mainly linked to changing household dynamics, where men try to assert their authority through violence as women take on a greater role of getting food and are therefore in more vulnerable situations.