Promoting IDPs' and Women's Voices in Post-Conflict Georgia

an important opportunity for women to participate in public life, their strong representation in thissector may result from their lack of access to politics, while also further reinforcing that women belongmainly in this sphere. According to experts, gender stereotypes thus lead to a “de facto curtailingaspirations for other roles.” 270 As civil society in Georgia has relatively low influence over thegovernment, women’s enhanced visibility has not increased their overall influence in society.Traditional gender roles are also still pervasive within IDP households, and across Georgian society.Women may participate more in the workforce, but within the home the “division of labor is notchanging much.” 271 Women continue to be the primary caretakers of their children and responsible forrunning the household, resulting in a double burden in caring for the family both in and outside of thehome. 272 In most households, women are also still not free to spend the income they earned, as theirhusbands manage the money. 273 Women’s new responsibilities, while expanding their opportunities forwork outside the home, have increased their levels of stress. A 2000 USAID study revealed that “the roleof displaced women as leading family income earners has not led to a growing sense of empowermentwithin the family or IDP communities in general.” 274Nevertheless, families in Georgia are tight-knit and IDPs communities tend to support one another,serving as an important source of resilience for men and women IDPs to deal with stress. One old waveIDP male stated, “IDPs support each other because they have a lot of difficult problems in their lives andnobody helped them.” 275 According to an IDP living in a collective center in Potskho-Etseri, “The strengthof Georgians is that they stay together: if they have one loaf of bread—they divide it amongst eachother. This is how we grow up and how we raise our children.” 276 This cohesive community structure canthus increase IDPs’ capacity to become more involved within their local communities and in politics.Trauma and VictimizationTrauma related to conflict and displacement have resulted in significant psychosocial burdens on entireIDP communities in Georgia, which in turn also negatively impacts their level of participation in publiclife. 277 Many IDPs witnessed, experienced, or were victims of military combat, physical or sexualviolence, torture or hostage-taking. 278 They continue to suffer from psychological distress from thetrauma they experienced and their current conditions of displacement. 279270 Juliet Schofield, Steven Schoofs and Hema Kotecha, “Building Inclusive Governance: Women’s Political Participation inConflict-Affected Georgia,” International Alert, Nov 2010, 15.271 Tamar Sabedashvili, Personal Interview.272 Ibid.273 Gender Research, Personal Interview, 21 March 2012.274 Thomas Buck, Alice Morton, Susan Allen Nan, and Feride Zurikashvili, 9.275 Old Wave IDP Male, Focus Group, 12 March 2012.276 IDPs from Potskho-Etseri Collective Center (Georgi and couple from Kodori Valley), Personal Interview, 16 or 17 March 2012277 Tsiskarishvili.278 UNIFEM, 20.279 Ibid., 7.57