Gendered displacement and mental health: the experience of refugee women in Ireland

Abstract

Women and girls account for roughly half of the world’s forcibly displaced people, yet their distinct experiences, needs, and capacities have historically been rendered invisible in both policy and research. This perspective piece examines the mental health of refugee women in Ireland, drawing on international evidence and the Irish context to argue that equitable, effective care requires focused clinical and policy attention. We describe the Irish landscape of international protection. Using an intersectional framework, we examine how gender interacts with motherhood, language, ethnicity, and religion to generate compounding disadvantage that generic services consistently fail to address. The mental health burden borne by refugee women in Ireland is substantial: Irish studies document markedly elevated rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety, shaped by gender-specific trauma profiles that are frequently under-recognised in clinical practice. Barriers to care – linguistic, cultural, and systemic – are multiple and mutually reinforcing. We also examine protective factors, including social connection, religious and cultural identity, and community-led peer support, as underutilised resources in Irish service provision. We conclude that social inclusion, through stable housing, employment, education, and genuine community participation, must be understood as a public mental health strategy, and that services should be developed, not only for, but with refugee women in Ireland.