Particularized Social Groups and Categorical Imperatives in Refugee Law: State Failures to Recognize Gender and the Legal Reception of Gender Persecution Claims in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States

This article asserts that the 'particular social group' requirement is a definitional hurdle constituting a fundamental problem in the adjudication of women's gender persecution-based refugee claims. The author argues that the legal absence of gender as an enumerated ground of persecution reflects states' failure to protect refugee women seeking asylum and to honor their commitment to gender equality. Although recognizing gender as an enumerated ground is insufficient, it is a necessary step toward a more complete and gendered interpretation of refugee law. Current claims rest on categories for claimants that, although expanding, are narrow. It is essential for refugee- receiving states to recognize gender as the defining characteristic delimiting the social group, rather than relying on comparisons to constructed sub-groups of women within the group of women as a whole.