Chapter 10: Feminism International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity 2e

Learning outcomes After this lecture you should be able to: Understand the added value of gender analysis to IR Recognise the variations within feminist theory Appreciate the contribution of feminism to the study of security and insecurity particularly in the case of economic sanctions against Iraq

Feminism Focuses on social relations, particularly gender relations; rather than anarchy International system: - constituted by socially constructed gender hierarchies - these contribute to gender subordination Knowledge: - mostly created by men and is about men Analysis: - micro-level - tend to share a postpositivist commitment

Typology of Feminisms Gender relationships inhere in all IR scholarship: –Liberal feminism –Critical feminism –Constructivist feminism –Poststructuralist feminism –Postcolonial feminism

Security and Insecurity Security: Defined broadly in multidimensional and multilevel terms - Security of individuals is related to national and international politics Security threats include: Those at the margins of states may be rendered more insecure by their state’s security policies - domestic violence - rape - poverty - gender subordination - ecological destruction - war

Myth of Protection Much of the legitimacy of war is based on the cultural construction that men fight wars to protect ‘vulnerable people’ Yet, women and children constitute a majority of casualties in recent wars Feminists highlight: –Militaries are often threats to individuals’ (particularly women’s) security and competitors for scarce resources on which women may depend more than men –Wartime rape as a deliberate military strategy

Economic Insecurity Women are disproportionately located at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale in all societies Disproportionate poverty cannot be explained by market conditions alone Gendered role expectations contribute to their economic insecurity : –economic worth of women’s work –kinds of tasks that women are expected to do

Case Study – Iraqi Sanctions Gendered lenses provide a different view of economic sanctions. Key insights include: Sanctions disproportionately affect women – Yet women’s voices are excluded from decisions about these policies Sanctions have a gendered logic as a policy choice – Sanctions are enacted by stronger actors in an attempt to force the weaker actor to submit to their will – This results in confrontational policies, policies that often hurt those at the margins of international political life the most

Case Study continued Post-colonial feminism –Criticise assumption that the UN Security Council members somehow knew better than Iraq what was good for Iraqis Responsibility –Draw attention to the construction of state borders as a way to separate ‘self’ from ‘other’ and distance ourselves from others’ suffering –Highlight the global hierarchies that are thereby created

Conclusion Gender: –not just about women but also about the way that international policies are framed, studied and implemented –only through gender analysis can we understand the differential impact of the state and the global economy on the lives of women and men