Gender and IR

1
Gender and IR

• A feminist theory of international relations

2
Introduction

• Basic inequalities between man and women have
  long been a recurrent feature of world politics
• Women own about one per cent of the worlds
  property and make up less than five per cent of
  the head of states and government
• Women account for 60 per cent of all illiterates
  and about 80 per cent of all refugees
• Realist theory has long ignored gender issues
• Four major theoretical gender approaches liberal
  feminism social-constructivist feminism
  Marxist-socialist feminism radical or
  post-modernist feminism

3
The inadequacy of mainstream approaches to
account for gender issues

• Mainstream IR approaches are gender biased
• They ignore that war and peace, conflict and
  co-operation are also gender activities
• Realist idea of security based on the military
  defence of state borders in an anarchic
  environment conceals a gender biased
• Protection from outside threats means also
  protection of domestic jurisdiction
• Domestic jurisdiction is based upon male
  domination
• Foreign policy, conflict and war have long been
  dominated by male values
• Women are victims of these practices

4
Liberal feminism

• Core idea of liberalism is the freedom and
  happiness of the individual
• Equal rights for men and women
• Basic liberal rights of life, liberty and
  property have not been extended in equal measure
  to women
• Women should have equal access as men to power
• International institutions shall promote
  transnational co-operation to achieve gender
  equality
• NGOs and other non state actors can also
  contribute to close the gender gap
• Not a radical criticism of the mainstream
  approaches
• Risk of moulding the gender view according to
  mainstream theoretical priorities

5
The Marxist-socialist view

• Oppression of women follows from the historical
  combination of capitalism and patricarchy
• Inferior position of women has to be ascribed to
  the economic, political, and social structures of
  the capitalist system
• Capitalism has established a division between
  productive work in the factory and invisible
  work at home
• Women have been therefore reduced to second-class
  citizens
• Women are in the contemporary labour market often
  in low-paid, low-status, low-responsibility jobs
• Only road to equal treatment is the elimination
  of the capitalist system

6
The social-constructivist view

• Gender refers to socially learned behaviour
• The social discourse distinguishes between
  masculinity and femininity
• Values associated with masculinity, i.e.
  rationality, activity, strenght, are assigned an
  higher rank
• Values associated with femininity, i.e.
  emotionality, passivity, weakness, are assigned a
  lower rank
• This amounts to a gender hierarchy and a gendered
  world
• The working of the international political and
  economic system reproduces an unpriviliged
  position for women
• It is necessary to reverse the dominating
  political discourse in order to reach gender
  equality

7
Radical or post-modernist feminism

• Rejection of any link with other theoretical
  approaches
• It tries to develop an independent feminist
  analysis of international relations
• End the subordination of gender to the
  traditional IR agenda
• Focus on social theory, social power, human
  emancipation
• Redefinition of traditional IR concepts, such as
  conflict, security, power and sovereignty
• Need for a security concept that is radically
  different from the traditional security concept
• Conflict must also include structural and
  domestic violence against women
• Downgrading of an autonomous discipline of IR
• Move away from positivism to post-positivist and
  post-structural approaches

8
Gender inequality as a source of conflict in
international politics

• High inequality between men and women has led to
  a faster population growth
• This has contributed to increase the worlds
  population
• There is a strong inverse correlation between the
  adult female literacy rate and the total
  fertility rate
• Population explosion is likely to be one of the
  biggest security challenges in the coming century
• Confronting this challenge successfully will
  require a radical change in gender roles
• Male dominated Western approach to gender issues
  has to be reversed

9
Conclusions

• A significant broadening of the traditional IR
  agenda
• New insights into the theoretical debate
• Key concepts, such as conflict, security, power,
  sovereignty, will have to redefined
• The inadequacy of the mainstream theoretical
  approaches?
• Do feminist and environmental theories add
  anything significant to the debate?
• Is the condition of women in the West
  significantly lower than in other non-Western
  societies?
• Will environmental and feminist approaches
  fundamentally change IR?
• Will it be possible to uphold the traditional
  distinction between the international and
  domestic realms?
• The realist response defending the discipline
  against analytical drifts