Feminism

Question 1

Is traditional IR gender neutral?

Answer 1

No. It is gender blind

Question 2

What are the 3 key aims of feminist IR?

Answer 2

1. To make women visible
2. To challenge women’s absence from decision-making + institutional structures
3. To expose + deconstruct social constructed gender norms

Question 3

Feminist theorists have revealed that women are routinely exposed to gendered violence. What has exposed about IR?

Answer 3

In making violence against women visible, an international system that accepted a large amount of violence against women as a normal state of affairs was also exposed

Question 4

What is the UN “UniTE” campaign?

Answer 4

• Campaign to end violence against women

- Estimated 7/10 women will experience violence at some point in life

Question 5

Is violence specific to any particular political or economic system?

Answer 5

Violence against women is prevalent globally

Not specific to any particular political or economic system

Question 6

Nowhere do women share…

Answer 6

The same economic, political or social rights as men

Question 7

Many societies are thought of as predominantly peaceful or stable despite…

Answer 7

High levels of gendered violence

Question 8

What does gendered violence present?

Answer 8

Presents a very different image of violence + insecurity to that views through the security agendas of states, which is characteristic of traditional IR

Question 9

Globally, what proportion do women make up of national parliaments?

Answer 9

In 2015, World Bank estimated that globally women made up just 22.9% of national parliaments

Question 10

How does traditional IR’s focus on areas of high politics exclude women exclude women? (4)

Answer 10

• Focus on areas of high politics e.g. sovereignty, the state, military security
• traditional state-centric focus overlooks fact that men are predominantly in charge of state institutions, dominating power + decision-making structures
• this is a gendered exclusion
• as women still contribute in essential ways to global politics

Question 11

Traditional perspectives that ignore gender not only overlook the contributions of women and the impact global politics has on them… (3)

Answer 11

• But also perpetually justify this exclusion
• Present false dichotomy between public + private realms
• If women are outside these domains of power, then their experiences + contributions are not relevant

Question 12

What is masculinity associated with? (4)

Answer 12

Rationality
Power
Independence
The public sphere

Question 13

What is femininity associated with? (4)

Answer 13

Irrationality
Dependent
Domestic
The private sphere

Question 14

How do assumptions about who should do what and why impact where women are in global politics? (6)

Answer 14

• By perpetuating assumptions about who should do what + why
• These gender identities are imbued with power
• In particular patriarchal power
• Which subordinates women + feminine gender identities
• Thus socially constructed gender identities determine distributions of power
• Which impact where women are in global politics

Question 15

What did Cynthia Enloe (1989) ask? (3)

Answer 15

• “Where are the women”
• Encouraging IR scholars to see the spaces that women inhabit in global politics
• Demonstrating that women are essential actors in international system
• Deconstructed distinctions between public + private

Question 16

In what ways have the military + war making traditionally been seen as masculine endeavours? (2)

Answer 16

• Linked with the idea that men are warriors and protectors

- That they are legitimate armed actors who fight to protect those in need of protection - women, children, the elderly

Question 17

What has the masculinisation of war meant in practice?

Answer 17

That contributions of women to conflict, + their experiences of it, have been considered peripheral + outside the realm of IR’s considerations

Question 18

When did the issue of gendered violence in conflict enter the international agenda? (4)

Answer 18

• The issue of gendered violence in conflict has only recently entered the international agenda
• Mass rape of women during + after WW2 not prosecuted, as considered an unfortunate by-product of war
• This has since changed, with 2002 Rome Statue recognising rape as a war crime
• But gendered violence remains endemic in many conflicts, as does impunity for its occurrence

Question 19

In examining wartime rape, what has Lori Handrahan shown? (3)

Answer 19

• The intersection of gender + ethnic identities
• Where the enemy’s women become constructed as ‘other’
• Thus violence against them represents the expansion of ethnic territory by the male conqueror

Question 20

What do gendered characterisations that see women characterised as protected mean? (3)

Answer 20

• That conquering them, through rape or sexual violence, is representative of power + domination over one’s enemy
• Rape of male opponents is seen to ‘feminise’ (humiliate) opponents
• This demonstrates how the feminine is devalued

Question 21

Why does feminism challenge gendered constructions of women as inherently peaceful? (2)

Answer 21

• See these constructions as further evidence of gender inequality
• And as contributing to the exclusion of women from traditional IR perspectives

Question 22

What is the impact of women being viewed as victims rather than actors?

Answer 22

• If women are assumed to be victims rather than actors, or peaceful rather than aggressive
• Or as only existing in private realm
• Then their experiences + perspectives on global politics are justified as marginal

Question 23

How have assumptions of women as peaceful been challenged? (2)

Answer 23

• Accounts of women being agents of political violence have challenged these assumptions
• And challenged IR’s limited engagement with women, which in practice perpetuates women’s limited access to power

Question 24

In what ways is peacekeeping shaped by masculine notions of militarised security? (5)

Answer 24

• Peacekeeping is security-seeking behaviour
• Violence against women often continues and increases in post-conflict period
• The dominant approaches to peacekeeping obscure these kinds of violence
• Issues like gender equality + domestic violence are considered soft issues
• This understanding of peace is thus one in which women’s security is not central

Question 25

Why does violence against women continue in the post-conflict period? (3)

Answer 25

• Women are generally excluded from positions of power + decision-making in reconstruction efforts
• And have limited access to economic resources
• Making them more susceptible to gendered violence

Question 26

Gender identities construct women as victims with limited agency. What is the impact of this assumption in peacekeeping missions? (3)

Answer 26

Means women are

• Excluded from disarmament programs because of socially produced gender norms
• Unable to access material + economic benefits that may flow from such programs
• Such as political or social gains they could make from being recognised as legitimate veterans in post-conflict societies

Question 27

How does peacekeeping itself also contribute to continuation of violence? (3)

Answer 27

• Numerous reports of peacekeepers perpetrating sexual violence while on mission
• e.g. 2015/16 reports of sexual abuse of children in Central African Republic by French peacekeepers
• And the UN’s inaction in the face of these reports

Question 28

Why do peacekeepers enjoy impunity, despite commitments to zero tolerance?

Answer 28

• Result of gendered security imperatives
• In which militarised security + coherence of the institutions
• Is prioritised over the welfare of the individual