Baylis,, Smith and

d Owens: T
The Globa
alization of World Pol itics 6e
Re
evision guiide
Cha
apter 17: G
Gender in world politics

There are ma
any feminis
st theories . They incllude liberal, Marxist, socialist, postp
collonial, and poststructtural.

All feminist th
heories are
e trying to e
explain wo
omens sub
bordinationn: howeverr, they all
havve differen
nt reasons for women
ns subordination.

Feminists define gende

er as a set of socially
y constructe
ed charactteristics tha
at define
hat we mea
an by masc
culinity and
d femininity
y.
wh

Ge
ender is a system
s
of social
s
hiera
archy in which masculine charaacteristics are more
vallued than feminine
f
ones.

ender is a structure
s
th
hat signifie
es unequal power rela
ationships between women
w
Ge
and
d men.

IR feminists use
u gender-sensitive
e lenses to help them
m answer q uestions about
a
why
wo
omen often
n play subo
ordinate rolles in globa
al politics.

Lib
beral femin
nists believe that wom
mens equa
ality can be
e achievedd by removing legal
obsstacles tha
at deny women the sa
ame opportunities as
s men.

Po
ost-liberal fe
eminists arrgue that w
we must look more de
eeply at unnequal gen
ndered
structures in order to un
nderstand womens subordinat
s
tion.

ow both ide
eas and material struuctures sha
ape
Feminist critical theorists show ho
peo
oples livess, and how
w changes in the mea
aning of ge
ender havee changed the
pra
actices of internationa
al organiza
ations overr time.

Feminist constructivists
s show us tthe various
s ways in which
w
ideaas about ge
ender
sha
ape and arre shaped by global p
politics.

Po
oststructura
al feminists
s claim tha t there is a link betwe
een knowleedge and power.
p
Sin
nce men ha
ave genera
ally been sseen as knowers and
d as subjeccts of know
wledge,

Oxford Universityy Press, 2014.

Baylis,, Smith and

d Owens: T
The Globa
alization of World Pol itics 6e
Re
evision guiide
thiss influence
es how we see globa l politics.

ost-coloniall feminists suggest th

hat women
ns subordin
nation musst be differrentially
Po
und
derstood in
n terms of race, classs, and geo
ographical location.

aditional sttories abou

ut war, which portray men as prrotectors aand women
n and
Tra
chiildren as being protected, are sseverely ch
hallenged by
b todays wars, in which
w
wo
omen and children
c
are being kil led and injjured in larrge numbeers.

ars association with masculinitty and the image of a soldier ass a heroic male
m
are
Wa
cha
allenged by an increa
asing num ber of wom
men in milittaries arouund the wo
orld.

i popular w
when state
es are preo
occupied w
with nationa
al security
Millitarized masculinity is
thrreats; conssequently conciliatory
c
y options in
n policy-ma
aking tend to get disc
counted
and
d it is difficcult for wom
mens voice
es to be re
egarded as
s legitimatee, particula
arly in
ma
atters of se
ecurity polic
cy.

ution of all forms of violence:

v
Feminists define securiity broadly to include the diminu
onomic, and ecologiccal.
phyysical, eco

Ag
gender-sen
nsitive pers
spective he
elps us see
e how wom
mens relattive disadv
vantage to
me
en in termss of materia
al well-bein
ng is due to
o the gend
dered divisiion of labo
our.

The gendered division of labour d

dates back
k to sevente
eenth-centtury Europe and the
sub
bsequent separation
s
of paid wo
ork in the public
p
sphe
ere from unnpaid work
k in the
privvate spherre, a separration that has an effe
ect on the kind of woork that women do in
the
e public sphere.

Wo
omen are disproporti
d
onately clu
ustered in low-paid jo
obs in garm
ment industries,
serrvices, and
d home-based work, or in subsistence agriculture.

addition to
o paid work
k, women p
perform mo
ost of the unpaid
u
reprroductive and
a caring
In a
lab
bour in the private sphere, labo ur that is in
nvisible in economic analysis. This
T

Oxford Universityy Press, 2014.

Baylis,, Smith and

d Owens: T
The Globa
alization of World Pol itics 6e
Re
evision guiide
con
nstrains wo
omens choices in th e public sp
phere.

nce waged
d work can be empow
wering for women,
w
ev
ven when t hey are pa
aid less
Sin
tha
an men, we
e must not overgene ralize abou
ut the nega
ative effectts of the ge
endered
divvision of lab
bour.

Mu
uch of the success
s
in moving to
owards gen
nder equality is due tto womens
s
org
ganizing in NGOs and social m ovements.. This has resulted inn getting wo
omens
isssues on the
e policy agendas of th
he United Nations an
nd other inttergovernm
mental
org
ganizationss.

f
kn
nowledge should
s
be useful
u
for im
mproving womens
w
Feminists believe that feminist
live
es, and ma
any feminis
st social m ovements are inform
med by fem
minist knowledge.

Da
ata disaggrregated by sex are vi tal for iden
ntifying wom
mens probblems and lobbying
forr change. The
T adoptio
on of the G
Gender Developmentt Index by tthe United Nations
u to see where
w
probllems are most
m
acute and to tracck evidenc
ce of
hass helped us
imp
provementt.

Ge
ender main
nstreaming, which ha
as been adopted by certain
c
inteernational
org
ganizationss and natio
onal govern
nments, is a policy th
hat evaluattes legislattion in
terrms of whe
ether it is lik
kely to incrrease or re
educe gend
der equalityy.

Oxford Universityy Press, 2014.