Introduction

Terrorism is an international issue

Role of women in violence noted by UN
Gender is a social construction attributed to physical bodies
Experience of women and men in violence are different
Why is important to make a gender role difference? Why this
difference is important in an international level?
There is an assumption that
Relevance
The research touches a wide range of questions of international relevance
such as how gender as a social construction shapes women and mens
roles in society? Whats the influence of gender in women and mens roles
in a context of violence? The role of women in international issues is
clearly an important factor for a fully understanding of the interactions
that takes places in a society.

Gender studies are important because, as the proposal says, experience

of women and men in violence are different. Nevertheless, if the topic is
Gendered Issues in International Politics, the proposal needs a better
explanation of the relevance related to that topic and its relation to
terrorism. Two questions could help to orient the relevance of the issue:
Why a differentiation between women and mens roles brings insights to
the understanding of terrorist organizations? and What this
differentiation can explain about terrorism itself? I also propose read the
introduction of Feminism, Militarism, and Attitudes Toward the Role of
Women in the Military by Melissa Herbert.

Main Question
Although How does gender influence and determine womens
participation in terrorist organizations is a very good question, two
assumptions need previous explanation: (1) gender influence womens
participation in a terrorist organization and (2) gender determine the role
of women within a terrorist organization. Therefore, the main question
proposed could be split into two different question that answered to a
biggest one, for example, Whats the relationship between gender and
womens participation within a terrorist organizations?

For a better understanding of the issue some theoretical factors need to

be explained. One of them has been contemplated in the proposal: How
gender roles and expectations regarding femininity in the public and
private spheres are constructed in a context of violence? But another one
is also necessary: Whats the definition of gender? In few words, whats
the definition of gender that the essay is going to use. For an explanation
of gender, Giddens chapter on gender and sexuality in his book
Sociology could be very helpful.

There are not sub-questions proposed, but if we reorganized what it is

already in the proposal, a structure of questions could be as follows:
 Whats the relationship between gender and womens
participation within a terrorist organizations?
Part I: Theoretical framework
o Whats the definition of gender?
o How gender roles and expectations regarding femininity in the
public and private spheres are socially constructed in a
context of violence?
Part II: Defining relationship between gender and
womens participation within a terrorist organization
o How gender influences womens reasoning and motivation for
joining terrorist organizations?
o How gender defines different roles for women and men within
a terrorist organization?

Arguments
The two assumptions of the main question proposed, when explained,
becomes two strong arguments that helps to answer a biggest ontological
question. And those main two arguments could be explained with an array
of cases already exposed in the proposal.

It is true that femininitys construction varies from nation to nation and

culture to culture. Nevertheless, if the research embraces to much cases
and tries to explore their differences in expectations of femininity, the
research could be very long and its orientation shifted. Rather than make
comparisons between cases, those cases could be use as examples that
supports the ideas that will be used to develop the arguments.

Main question
How does gender influence and determine womens participation in
terror organizations?
How does gender roles influence and determine womens
participation in terror organizations?
o How gender roles are constructed?
o Whats womens role in terror organizations?
Whats the relationship between gender and womens participation
within a terrorist organizations?
Theoretical framework
o Whats the definition of gender?
o How gender roles and expectations regarding femininity in the
public and private spheres are constructed in a context of
violence?
 Defining relationship between gender and womens
participation within a terrorist organization
o How gender influences womens reasoning and motivation for
joining terrorist organizations?
o How gender defines different roles for women and men within
a terrorist organization?

Arguments
Gender influences joining terrorist organizations. How?
Gender determine the role women will take. How?
Expectations of masculinity and femininity differ from culture to
culture

Mead of the essay

Role gender differentiation is important to understand terrorist
organizations