Relevance of Feminism for International Relations - Essay Example

 Relevance of Feminism for International Relations Introduction The end of cold war resulted in many changes in the international political system. The revolutionary concepts like globalization, liberalization, and privatization entered the world only because of the absence of cold war. The prominent political machineries forced to broaden the concept of international relationship theory in order to accommodate more social issues into the context of IR theory. Feminism has thus found its place in international relationship theory. Even though International relations (IR) or International studies (IS) means the study of foreign affairs and global issues among states within the international system, it has many other meanings as well according to the current views. In other words, the concept of international relations has been much widened after the end of cold war. Many people have the doubt that how feminism related to international relations. But according to Wilkinson (2007) international relations at present include relations between non-state organizations such as churches, humanitarian relief organizations, intergovernmental organizations, multinational corporations apart from the relationships with the states (Wilkinson, 2007, p.1). In other words, feminism like humanitarian relief organization has definite connections with international relations now. The term feminism refers to the political, cultural, and economic movements targeted at equalizing the female and male rights in all forms of our human life on earth. Feminists believe that the dominant male community is not providing justice to the female community by denying opportunities for the development of the female community. They have conducted many struggles to achieve for rights such as contract rights, property rights, voting rights abortion rights, and reproductive rights. In short feminism refers to the autonomy and liberation of female community from the dominance of the male community. “Feminists believe that every arbitrary barrier to the women’s full development should be thrown down” (Schneir, 1994, p.63).This paper briefly explains the relevance of feminism with respect to international relations. Feminism and international relations Gender is often a misinterpreted term. Many people have the belief that gender represents sex. According to Ruiz (n. d), the term gender has much wider meanings; it refers to the social construction of men’s and women’s identities. In other words gender represents the power dynamics in our social system. Patriarchy is another term related to feminism. It refers a system in which females considered subordinates to males (Ruiz n. d, p.1). In short, in order to identify feminism with respect to IR theory we should understand the real meanings of gender and patriarchy first. Feminists believe that the current IR system which comprises of diplomats, policymakers, government heads, academic professionals etc are dominated by the dominant male community. They argue that females can also perform equally well or even better than men in these areas and they should be allowed to show their talents to the world. Lind (2005) has classified feminist international relations theory into three categories; feminist empiricism, feminist standpoint theory and feminist postmodernism. In her opinion, Feminist empiricism is conservative, though not politically conservative whereas the standpoint theorists argue that the entire enterprise of international relations theory, like other disciplines, has to be rethought from the standpoint of women. The postmodernists qualify this by arguing that there is no single standpoint of women (Lind M 2005). Feminist empiricism is not keeping much aggressive attitudes in their dealings with the male community. They are ready to accept the customs and traditions up to certain extent. But politically they are also keeping strong differences with the male community. In their opinion, the international politics is dominated by the male community and females need more participation in politics in order to handle the issues related to the female community more effectively. The feminist stand point theorists are keeping more aggressive approaches in their views. In their opinion, the international relationship theory should be completely rewritten to cater the needs of the women community. The post modernists also support this attitude, but they are keeping the most aggressive views with respect to feminism and international relationships. In their opinion, female community should have equal rights in politics and other areas of social, economical and family lives. Post modernists are not ready for a compromise or they are not ready to dilute their demands. Both standpoint and post modernist theorists criticize empiricists for their liberal attitudes and thinking like men. In their opinion, empiricists failed to assess the reality in its actual complete dimensions. Empiricists believe that the conditions of the women community are not much bad in politics. They are citing the examples of Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi Jean Kirkpatrick etc to support their claims. But the standpoint and post modernists theorist believe that the emergence of all the above leaders was an occasional one and it doesn’t mean that the conditions of women in politics is so good. Radical feminists believe that the current political system deliberately ignores the contributions of the women community in order to keep the interests of the male community intact. In their opinion, the massacres committed against the women community is often gone unnoticed. For example, rape, sex trafficking, military prostitutions etc are common evils across the world which failed to catch the attention of the world because of the male dominance in international political system. Moreover feminists believe that if women were allowed to involve in the political spectrum more actively most of the massacres against the women community could have been brought to the lime light of the world. Feminists’ theories have more similarities with the theories of Marxism. Marxism believes that the upper class oppresses the rights of the lower class by denying the lower class the opportunity to acquire wealth. In other words, Marxism believes that the upper class exploit the lower class for making money by deny them the freedom in their social and political life. In feminist theory, the upper class refers to the male community whereas the lower class refers to the female community. In other words, the male community exploit the female community for safeguarding their interests. For example, feminists believe that the male community exploiting the female community only for sexual needs and reproductive purposes. They are trying to tie the females in the kitchen or the home and not allowing them the liberties to participate more meaningfully in social and political life. Differing notions of masculinity and femininity in different societies, the treatment of women and homosexuals of both sexes in the armed forces, the exploitation of prostitutes by American soldiers deployed abroad, the sexual division of labour both in advanced and developing countries etc are better examples of female exploitations (Lind M 2005). Capitalist countries are generally dominated by the patriarchal structure and hence the females in these countries are facing more challenges than the females in socialist countries. Wealth is normally managed by the dominant male community and the rise of female community in the mainstreams of social life is a threat for them in controlling resources. The creator has created human s male and female and he has not given separate rights top each of them. It is fact that males and females have certain differences with respect to physiological and psychological aspects. But basically both have similar feelings, emotions, attitudes and intelligence. Giving or defining separate roles and responsibilities for males and females in social and political lives is against the plans of the creator. Feminists believe that international institutions provide for ways in which women can be become more politically and socially acknowledged and empowered. But the leaders and the processes of formal international organizations come from patriarchal systems, which is a major disadvantage for the women (Ruiz, n. d, p.5). Females can increase their participation in politics and social life only with the help of the dominant male community. But the attitudes of the male community towards the female community has not changed much even in the current advanced and civilized world. The conditions of the women even in the developed and democratic countries are not much good. Their condition is even pathetic in some of the Muslim countries because of the dominance of religion in politics. For example, in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait like Muslim countries, women are facing strong restrictions in their social and political life. It is impossible for the females to participate actively in the mainstreams of the political and social lives in these countries. Feminists argue that traditional IR thinking has avoided thinking of men and women in the capacity of embodied and socially constituted subject categories by subsuming them in other categories (e.g. statesmen, soldiers, refugees), too readily accepting that women are located inside the typically separate sphere of domestic life, and retreating to abstractions (i.e. the state) that mask a masculine identity. Gender-minded analysts therefore seek to move from suspicion of officially un-gendered IR texts to their subversion and to replacement theories. Some recent gender-attentive research streams include: critique and re-appropriation of stories told about the proper scope of the field of IR; revisions of war and peace narratives; re-evaluations of women and development in the international system and its parts; feminist interpretations of human rights; and feminist understandings of international political economy and globalisation (The IR Theory Knowledge Base, n. d). The issues related to the female community should not be considered as a separate topic in international relations theory. Feminism should be considered just like realism and liberalism in IR theory. In the current world of globalization, cooperation among states and countries has been increased a lot. For example, even the communist country China started to improve its ties with the capitalist world in order to exploit the opportunities of globalization and liberalization. Under such circumstances it is suicidal to keep feminism away from the mainstreams of international relations theory. Wibben, (2004) has pointed out that the feminists in peace research had mounted a challenge to bias in their field at the 1975 International Peace Research Association conference, where they highlighted gender as a variable in structural violence (Wibben, 2004, p.99). They argued that most of the international problems were the contributions of male community and if females were allowed to participate more freely in international politics, most of the violence and disputes of national dimensions could have been avoided. For example, many people believe that America engaged a war with Iraq recently not because of the publicly declared reasons. George Bush Jr.’s theory of weapons of mass destruction like biological, chemical or nuclear weapons was a fluke as even after the execution of Saddam Husain, American troops failed to locate any of it in Iraq. Many people believe that Bush Jr. has conducted Iraq war for Bush Sr. Bush Sr. has faced some humiliation earlier from the hands of Saddam and it is believed that Bush Jr. was taking revenge for that through Iraq war. In any case, if females were in critical positions, the above issue could have been handled more effectively and sometimes even the war could have been avoided. In feminists’ opinion, the way of thinking of both men and women are different because of the physiological and psychological differences. In other words, men are more aggressive in nature compared to the females and their aggressive nature is making the political problems worst. Feminists believe that the females can solve most of the problems or disputes between nations because of their immense patience, temperament and soft approaches towards issues. The call for feminist stand pointers to make a contribution to IR, preferably by reexamining fundamental concepts of the discipline such as power, sovereignty and the state, is growing (Wibben, 2004, p.100). In India, call for reserving at least 33% seats for the women community in parliament and other legislative bodies is taking momentum at present even though some conservative political parties opposing it. Similar activities are going on in many countries at present. Women and their experiences are neglected by the male dominant community at present. The current political system across the world is taking men as the sole actors and citizens in politics and IR theory and giving women a space only outside politics. Feminist IR theory focuses on the dominance of male community in disciplines like war security diplomacy etc. It also give attention to the topic how gender shapes the current global political system. Feminists understand that in order to produce genuine change it is necessary to challenge not only the content of a particular narrative, but also its structure. In other words, it is not enough to simply add women, or even to achieve greater visibility of the ways in which gender shapes international relations, but it is important also to transform how IR produces, disseminates, and recreates knowledge. Feminist IR challenges the discipline to develop dynamic approaches that can be constantly revised, that can adapt to evolving events and issues, and that are imaginative enough to capture subtleties that remain unnoticed in formalized models. It disturbs because it denies the possibility of traditional cumulative knowledge and demands that scholars continually question and revise their own assumptions (Wibben, 2004, p.109) Conclusions It is difficult for the current world to develop properly if it persists with allocating separate roles for males and females. Females have some definite edge over males at least the temperament and patience are concerned. Many of the international disputes which were the contributions of the male community could have been settled amicably if the women allowed negotiating in such matters. International relationship theory (IR theory) should not treat feminism as a separate issue; it should give the needs of the women more importance like many other issues in order to create a more advanced and civilized world. Males and females should have equal rights in all segments of human life and there is no point in males holding certain positions under their control and then talking about issues or topics like democracy, equality, liberty, human right etc. We are living in a civilized world in which all the human beings should be treated equally irrespective of the gender, sex or race. References 1. Lind M (2005),The Morning After: Sexual Politics at the End of the Cold War, Retrieved on 25 June 2010 from http://feminism.eserver.org/of-arms-and-the-woman.txt 2. Schneir M (1994), Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings, Publisher: Vintage (June 28, 1994) 3. Ruiz T(n. d) Feminist Theory and International Relations: The Feminist Challenge to Realism and Liberalism Retrieved on 25 June 2010 from http://honors.csustan.edu/journals/Soundings/Ruiz.pdf 4. The IR Theory Knowledge Base, (n. d), Retrieved on 25 June 2010 from http://www.irtheory.com/know.htm 5. Wilkinson P (2007), International Relations: A Very Short Introduction Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (August 20, 2007) 6. Wibben A.T.R (2004), Feminist International Relations: Old Debates and New Directions, Brown Journal of World Affairs WINTER / SPRING 2004 • VOLUME X, ISSUE 2, Retrieved on 25 June 2010 from http://www.watsoninstitute.org/bjwa/archive/10.2/Feminist%20Theory/Wibben.pdf Read More