Palestinian Culture and Society

“Female-Headed Households in Camps: A Demographic Study of the West Bank and Gaza” 

(2011)

Abstract: The Arab region is unique in the nature of its refugee situation, specifically as the site 

of the world’s longest-standing refugee question - that of the Palestinians. 30% of Palestinian 

refugees inhabit camps (any locality referred to as a refugee camp and administered by the 

United Nations Refugees and Work Agency in the Near East (UNRWA). This astounding figure 

leads us to expect that camp experience would be a central element in Palestinian historywriting. However, this is not necessarily the case. Although the United Nations, as well as a 

number of Palestinian, Israeli and international NGOs have conducted some research to highlight

camp life conditions (usually politico-economic sector, such as income, poverty level, etc.), the

subject is still woefully under-researched (especially regarding the socio-cultural sector). 

Nuances of camp life, including internal dynamics, stresses, and gender dynamics have not 

received much attention from most researchers. However, studying strategies of households and 

families is critical. In this paper, I aim to compare the demographics of female-headed 

households of Palestinian women in camps in both the West Bank and Gaza, utilizing the 

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) 2007 census data. A household is defined as: one 

person or a group of persons with or without a household relationship, who live in the same 

housing unit, share meals and make joint provision of food and other essentials of living. 

Therefore, a head of household refers to the person who usually lives within the household and is 

considered the main decision-maker and responsible for financial support and economic welfare 

of the household. There are many factors that contribute to the creation of female-headed 

households, a distinction between female headship "imposed" by widowhood and marital 

separation (which in camps are frequently due to imprisonment of the male head of household) 

and that which is voluntarily chosen by husbands' work migration. For this research, the term

“female-headed households” encompasses households headed by widowed, divorced, separated,

single never married, and those whose males’ heads are either away or in prison.