Political Science 144
Chapter 18: Gender in World Politics
Feminism: The Basics
- Inequality
- Deep rooted structures of PATRIARCHY in all societies
- Aims at emancipation change the world
- Achieving political, social and economic equality for women
- Feminists link knowledge to political practice emancipatory knowledge
- Goal: explain women’s’ subordination and seek ways to end it
- Gender is a system of social hierarchy in which masculine characteristics are more
valued than feminine ones
Liberal Feminism: attention to rules/laws that obstruct if change laws then can be
emancipated
- Look for women in institutions and practices of global politics and observe how their
presence/absence affects and is affected by international policy-making
Post-liberal feminism: Must look more deeply than unequal gender structures
Feminist Critical Theory: show that both ideas and material structures shape peoples lives and
how changes in the meaning of gender have changed the practices of international
organisations over time
Feminist constructivists: show us the various ways in which ideas about gender shape and are
shaped by global politics
Post-structural feminism: claim that there is a link between knowledge and power. Since men
have generally been seen as knowers and as subjects of knowledge, this influences how we see
global politics
Postcolonial Feminism: different countries have different extents of patriarchy
- Make claims in the way which western feminism has constructed knowledge about non-
western women
- Criticise that feminism is largely based on western women’s experiences of relatively
privileged women
- Must be understood in terms of race, class and geographical location
Challenging the myth of protection
- Always been told men fight to protect women and children
- However, large proportion of casualties are the women and children
- Women and children = half the world’s refugee population
- In wartime women subjects of prostitution and rape Systematic military strategy
(Bosnia & Herzegovina rape associated with ethnic cleansing)
1
Chapter 18: Gender in World Politics
Feminism: The Basics
- Inequality
- Deep rooted structures of PATRIARCHY in all societies
- Aims at emancipation change the world
- Achieving political, social and economic equality for women
- Feminists link knowledge to political practice emancipatory knowledge
- Goal: explain women’s’ subordination and seek ways to end it
- Gender is a system of social hierarchy in which masculine characteristics are more
valued than feminine ones
Liberal Feminism: attention to rules/laws that obstruct if change laws then can be
emancipated
- Look for women in institutions and practices of global politics and observe how their
presence/absence affects and is affected by international policy-making
Post-liberal feminism: Must look more deeply than unequal gender structures
Feminist Critical Theory: show that both ideas and material structures shape peoples lives and
how changes in the meaning of gender have changed the practices of international
organisations over time
Feminist constructivists: show us the various ways in which ideas about gender shape and are
shaped by global politics
Post-structural feminism: claim that there is a link between knowledge and power. Since men
have generally been seen as knowers and as subjects of knowledge, this influences how we see
global politics
Postcolonial Feminism: different countries have different extents of patriarchy
- Make claims in the way which western feminism has constructed knowledge about non-
western women
- Criticise that feminism is largely based on western women’s experiences of relatively
privileged women
- Must be understood in terms of race, class and geographical location
Challenging the myth of protection
- Always been told men fight to protect women and children
- However, large proportion of casualties are the women and children
- Women and children = half the world’s refugee population
- In wartime women subjects of prostitution and rape Systematic military strategy
(Bosnia & Herzegovina rape associated with ethnic cleansing)
1
