Feminism is a broad term given to works of those scholars who have sought to bring gender concerns into the academic study of international politics and who have used feminist theory and sometimes queer theory to better understand global politics and international relations as a whole.
Feminist IR theory In terms of international relations (IR) theory, a feminist approach is grouped in the broad category of theoretical approaches known as reflectivism, representing a divergence from approaches adhering to a rationalist outlook based on the premises of rational choice theory; reflectivist approaches, which also include constructivism, post-structuralism, and postcolonialism, regard state identities and interests as continuously in flux so that norms and identity play as much a role in shaping policy as material interests.Collins, Adam (2016). Contemporary Security Studies. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . pp. 448-449. "Glossary", entries for "rationalism" and "reflectivism".
One of the most influential works in feminist IR is Cynthia Enloe's Bananas, Beaches, and Bases (Pandora Press 1990). This text sought to chart the many different roles that women play in international politics – as plantation sector workers, diplomatic wives, sex workers on military bases, etc. The important point of this work was to emphasize how, when looking at international politics from the perspective of women, one is forced to reconsider their assumptions regarding what international politics is 'all about'.
However, it would be a mistake to think that feminist IR was solely a matter of identifying how many groups of women are positioned in the international political system. From its inception, feminist IR has always shown a strong concern with thinking about men and, in particular, masculinities. Indeed, many IR feminists argue that the discipline is inherently masculine. For example, in her article "Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals" Signs (1988), Carol Cohn claimed that a highly masculinized culture within the defense establishment contributed to the divorcing of war from human emotion.
Feminist IR theory involves looking at how international politics affects and is affected by both men and women and also at how the core concepts that are employed within the discipline of IR (e.g. war, security, etc.) are themselves gendered. Feminist IR has not only concerned itself with the traditional focus of IR on states, wars, diplomacy, and security, but feminist IR scholars have also emphasized the importance of looking at how gender shapes the current global political economy. In this sense, there is no clear-cut division between feminists working in IR and those working in the area of International Political Economy (IPE).
Emergence of Feminist IR Feminist IR emerged largely from the late 1980s onwards. The end of the Cold War and the re-evaluation of traditional IR theory during the 1990s opened up a space for gendering International Relations. Because feminist IR is linked broadly to the critical project in IR, by and large, most feminist scholarship has sought to problematize the politics of knowledge construction within the discipline - often by adopting methodologies of deconstructivism associated with postmodernism/poststructuralism. However, the growing influence of feminist and women-centric approaches within the international policy communities (for example, at the World Bank and the United Nations) is more reflective of the liberal feminist emphasis on equality of opportunity for women.
In regards to feminism in International Relations, some of the founding feminist IR scholars refer to using a "feminist consciousness" when looking at gender issues in politics. In Cynthia Enloe's article “Gender is not enough: the need for a feminist consciousness”, Enloe explains how International Relations needs to include masculinity in the discussion on war, while also giving attention to the issues surrounding women and girls.Enloe, C. (2004), III "‘Gender’ is not enough: the need for a feminist consciousness". International Affairs, 80: 95–97. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2346.2004.00370.x. In order to do so, Enloe urges International Relations scholars to look at issues with a ‘feminist consciousness’, which will ultimately include a perspective sensitive to masculinities and femininities. In this way, the feminist consciousness, together with a gendered lens, allows for IR academics to discuss International Politics with a deeper appreciation and understanding of issues pertaining to gender around the world.
Enloe argues how the IR discipline continues to lack serious analysis of the experiences, actions, and ideas of girls and women in the international arena and how this ultimately excludes them from the discussion in IR. For instance, Enloe explains Carol Cohn's experience using a feminist consciousness while participating in the drafting of a document that outlines the actions taken in negotiating ceasefires, peace agreements, and new constitutions. During this event, those involved came up with the word “combatant” to describe those in need during these usually high-strung negotiations. The use of ‘combatant’ in this context is particularly problematic as Carol points out because it implies one type of militarized people, generally men carrying guns, and excludes the women and girls deployed as porters, cooks, and forced ‘wives’ of male combatants. This term effectively renders the needs of these women invisible and excludes them from the particularly critical IR conversation regarding who needs what in war and peace. This discussion is crucial for the analysis of how various masculinities are at play in International Politics and how those masculinities affect women and girls during wartime and peace and initially eliminates them from the discussion.
Conversely, feminist IR scholar Charlotte Hooper effectively applies a feminist consciousness when considering how “IR disciplines men as much as men shape IR”.Hooper, C. (1999), "Masculinities, IR and the 'Gender Variable': A Cost-Benefit Analysis for (Sympathetic) Gender Skeptics". International Studies, 25: 475-491. So, instead of focusing on what and whom IR excludes from the conversation, Hooper focuses on how masculine identities are perpetuated and ultimately are the products of the practice of IR. In this way, it is ineffective to use a gendered lens and feminist consciousness to analyze the exclusion of a discussion in gender in IR. Hooper suggests that a deeper examination of the ontological and epistemological ways in which IR has been inherently a masculine discipline is needed. The innate masculinity of IR is because men compose the vast majority of modern IR scholars, and their masculine identities have been socially constructed over time through various political progressions. For instance, Hooper gives examples of the historical and political developments of masculinities that are still prevalent in IR and society at large; the Greek citizen/warrior model, the Judeo Christian model, and the Protestant bourgeois rationalist model. These track the masculine identities throughout history, where manliness is measured in militarism and citizenship, ownership and authority of the fathers, and finally, competitive individualism and reason. These masculinities in turn ask one to not only use the feminist consciousness to analyze the exclusions of femininities from IR, but additionally, Hooper illuminates how one can locate the inherent inclusions of masculinities in the field of IR with a feminist consciousness.
Gender and war A prominent basis for much of feminist scholarship on war is to emphasize how men are seen as the sole actors in war. Women, on the other hand, are commonly conceived of as acted upon throughout conflict and conflict resolutions. As asserted by Swati Parashar, they are documented as “grieving widows and mothers, selfless nurses, and anti-war activists”. The reality is that women play various roles in war and for different reasons, depending on the conflict. It is noted that women have actively participated in war since the mid-nineteenth century. This process of eliminating women from war is a tool used to discredit women as agents in the international arena. A focal point for many feminist scholars is mass rape during wartime. These scholars will seek to explain why wartime sexual violence is so prevalent throughout history and today. Some scholars turn to explanations such as rape as a weapon or as a reward for soldiers during the war. Others see sexual violence as an inevitable consequence when social restraints are removed. Feminist scholarship has also critiqued mainstream IR theories and the field of international relations for failing to study war in depth.
Feminist anti-militarism Feminists within IR often look to how conceptions of masculinity have shaped foreign policy, state identity, and security and armament during and outside of warfare. One tradition that exists within the field for this purpose is that of feminist anti-militarism. This is a stance within Feminist International Relations that opposes weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear weaponry, and holds gender accountable in part for the propagation of militarism.Cohn, C., & Ruddick, S. (2003). A Feminist Ethical Perspective on Weapons of Mass Destruction. Boston Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights, Working Paper 104, 3-33. Retrieved from http://www.genderandsecurity.umb.edu/cohnruddick.pdf Gender becomes embedded in relations of power as that which is seen to be stronger is assigned a masculinized identity, while concepts such as emotion are seen as indicators of weakness and become associated with femininity.Duncanson, C., & Eschle, C. (2008). Gender and the Nuclear Weapons State: A Feminist Critique of the UK Government’s White Paper on Trident. New Political Science, 30(4), 545-563. Retrieved from use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.p In this way, the military strength and capability of a state becomes associated with its degree of masculinity, which feminist anti-militarists see as problematic. As disarmament could be perceived as emasculatory, states are less likely to disarm; consequently, militarism becomes normalized, downplayed, and more likely to incite warfare.Cohn, C. (1987). Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals. Signs, 12(4), 687-178. Retrieved from http://genderandsecurity.umb.edu/Carol%20Cohn%20Sex%20and%20Death% These are some of the concepts that Carol Cohn and Sara Ruddick explored in their article “Feminist Ethical Perspective on Weapons of Mass Destruction,” (2003) which laid out the meaning behind what they referred to as “anti-war feminism”. They explain that it opposes the use of weapons of mass destruction whether for military, political, or deterring purposes, yet that it differs from pacifism in that it does not outright reject all forms of warfare. Such opposition stems partly from the questionability of how effective warfare/militarism is, and whether the costs, (albeit monetary, environmental, and especially human) that are inevitably incurred yet not always accounted, for are worth it.