Forced Displacement among Rural Women in Colombia

Women are the main survivors in the Colombian conflict. Even in the most adverse circumstances they play a crucial role in their families vital material and symbolic reconstruction. They are burdened with the pain of their losses, fear, family rupture, and righteous anger at seeing their bodies transformed into military targets. They reconstruct territories and identity referents while building multiple forms of resistance in the midst of sudden impoverishment and social exclusion. They take leading roles in their daily domestic and public spaces as they garner social recognition and self-esteem even while living at the limits of pain and uncertainty. As their memories interweave different times and places, pains and pleasures, these women rediscover their social networks and capabilities, the most important of which is the chance to provide a better life for their children.