Feminist IR Theory Lecture Notes PDF

Lecture on Feminist Theory of IR Course: Theories of IR University of Sharjah Fall 2024-2025 M. Moniruzzaman  Outline Basic Principles Origins of Feminism Women in IR Logic of Feminist IR theory Key IR Concepts from Feminist Perspective Types of F...

Lecture on Feminist Theory of IR Course: Theories of IR University of Sharjah Fall 2024-2025 M. Moniruzzaman  Outline Basic Principles Origins of Feminism Women in IR Logic of Feminist IR theory Key IR Concepts from Feminist Perspective Types of Feminist Theory Main Points  Feminist IR Theory: Basic Points 1. The fairer sex in theory – gender approaches in IR and integration studies 2. One of the more interesting things about feminism is that much of feminist theorising directly emerges from the experience of political struggle. 3. An important thing to understand is that there is not one feminism. There are multiple approaches to the study of gender in international relations, many of which overlap or contradict each other. 4. Gender is not just about women but also about the way international policies are framed, studied, and implemented 5. Conventional IR relies on generalized rationalist explanations of asocial states‘ behaviour in an anarchic international system. 6. IR feminist theories focus on social relations, particularly gender relations; rather than anarchy, 7. They see an international system constituted by socially constructed gender hierarchies which contribute to gender subordination.  Main Thinkers and Works  Cynthia Enloe. Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics  Jean Bethke Elshtain. Women and War  Ann Tickner. Gender in International Relations: Feminist Perspectives on Achieving Global Security  V. Spike Peterson and Anne Sisson Runyan. Global Gender Issues: Dilemma in World Politics. 1993  Christine Sylvester. Feminist Theory and International Relations in a Postmodern Era  Sandra Whitworth. Feminism and International Relations. 1994  Jill Steans. Gender and International Relations: An Introduction  Feminist IR Worldview 1. How international politics affects and is affected by both men and women 2. How the core concepts that are employed within the discipline of IR (war, security, etc.) are themselves gendered. 3. Feminist IR has not only concerned itself with the traditional focus of IR on states, wars, diplomacy, and security, but also emphasized the importance of looking at how gender shapes the current global political economy. 4. In this sense, there is no clear-cut division between feminists working in IR and those working in the area of IPE.  Origins of Feminist IR Theories 1. Feminist IR emerged largely from the late 1980s onwards. 2. The end of the Cold War and the re-evaluation of traditional IR theory during the 1990s opened a space for gendering International Relations. 3. Because feminist IR is linked broadly to the critical project in IR, most feminist scholarship has sought to problematise the politics of knowledge construction within the discipline - often by adopting methodologies of deconstructivism associated with postmodernism/poststructuralism. 4. However, the feminist and women-centric approaches within the international policy communities is more reflective of the liberal feminist emphasis on equality of opportunity for women- Gender Equality politics  Women in IR (and Politics) 1. Women are ignored by mainstream IR research, claim Feminist IR thinkers. 2. Women's lives and experiences are excluded in thinking and theorising in IR, as are female scholars. 3. Current research in IR represents only a partial "malestream" view as a consequence. 4. Many feminist writers argue that thinking of IR only as high politics (... of war...) ignores the degree to which diplomacy reflects the intervention of women.  Logics of Feminist IR Theory 1. Key concepts of IR theory are gendered. Feminists argue that gender relations have not been studied in IR because the field is gendered. 2. The study of IR is not neutral but reflects in its key concepts - power, sovereignty, anarchy and security - elements of a patriarchal division between the public and private. 3. In this view, male experiences and forms of knowledge are inside the public sphere, whereas those of women have been historically located within the private sphere, which has been thought not to count in IR thinking 4. So, not only IR excludes/marginalizes women, it’s based on gender- specific assumptions linked to the dominance of men. 5. From an analytical point of view, feminist IR theorists argue the failure of malestream IR to see that the gendering of their theory limits the ability of most IR thinking to explain change and continuity in world politics. 6. A major feature of the feminist incorporation of gender into IR theory is rejection of the separation of domestic and "international" politics. The domestic and international are conceived instead as interdependent. Attempts to exclude the domestic, like the private, from IR thinking reflect gendered notions of what counts in IR.  Key Concepts in Feminist IR Man. Realism and Liberalism see people as rational, self-maximizing actors. But feminist IR thinkers view it as a model made by men about how some men operate in a particular context of relations between genders Men are identified with the public realm as bringers of order, while women are identified with private thinking or anarchy, which, of course, is in principle the source of threats to the international system in Realist and Liberal thought. The State. Rather than conceive of the state as a reflection of sovereignty, some gender theorists see states as reflective of gender power, which acts on men and women to socialize narrow versions of gender identities into them. Power. This is typically conceived as "power-over" in most IR theory: the ability of A to get B to do something B would not otherwise have done. But, to feminist IR theorists, this rests on the male-centered assumption that autonomy equals being free from the direct influence of others.  An alternative view of power is to focus on the ways in which the rules of the game are organized in advance of 'power- over’. Rationality. International cooperation and collaboration is always just a means to an end for Realists.  Feminist IR theorists Rationality here is a disembodied and detached masculine way of seeing the world Security. Security of individuals is related to national and international politics, it is one-dimensional- state-securty  Feminist: Security threats include domestic violence, rape, poverty, gender subordination, ecological destruction, war  Types of Feminist Theory  Liberal feminism is the most commonsense-like version. It looks at the roles women play in world politics. How are women excluded from power, ask the Liberal Feminists? Liberal Feminists want the same rights men enjoy extended to women.  Marxist/socialist feminism focuses on the international capitalist system. Marxist feminists see the oppression of women as a result of capitalism, whereas socialist feminists see both capitalism and patriarchy as the structures to be overcome.  Critical feminism emphasis on the ideas men and women attach to their relationships and where those ideas come from.  Postcolonial feminism are concerned with racial stereotypes, being especially critical of the domination of feminism by white western women.  Conclusions  The three most important things to keep in mind about feminist IR theory in general: 1. The central claim is that gender is a social issue and not a biological one; 2. the rejection of fixed elements or structures in IR theory (such as anarchy); and 3. passionate interest in the possibilities for change in world politics. Female are peace-loving, affectionate and gentle