Since the 1980ies, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has in several conclusions focused on the particular attention to the international protection of refugee women. These conclusions are the result of ongoing feminist analysis and recommendations in order to recognize the different needs of women and men in a refugee situation. In 1988, UNHCR officially recognized the special vulnerability of refugee women and adopted a policy focusing on strengthening and empowering women according to their specific needs. This paper holds that UNHCR is caught in a dilemma of constructing refugee women as vulnerable victims while aiming to empowering them. The tension field between the victimization and empowerment of refugee women is the turning point of this paper. The purpose is to interrogate the underlying assumptions concerning gender in UNHCR policy and interventions to thereby give perspectives on the effects of the UNHCR policy. The method employed is a policy analysis model that draws attention to the way in which particular issues are problematized and explores the following effects. This paper unveils the underpinning assumptions in UNHCR policy and thereby contributes to the ongoing debates on gender mainstreaming.