The Relevance of Feminist Issues in International Relations - Coursework Example

Relevance of feminist issues in international relations affiliation Introduction Feminism is a collection of ideologies and movements sharing common stated ethos which are to define, establish and defend the rights of women in the economic, political social and cultural spheres. It also seeks to inaugurate equal opportunities for women in employment and education. Feminist advocate for or support equality and womens rights. Over time, there has been development of feminist theories that seek to establish the state of inequality in the society by closely examining the womens roles and their life experiences. These theories have managed to explain the social construction of sex and gender in all forms of cultures (Caprioli 2007). The major historical, societal changes more so in the west whereby women have achieved gender neutrality, reproductive rights and equal pay for women, have been the markers of success of these movements. Furthermore, they -feminist- have ensured that there are minimal domestic violence, sexual assault and sexual harassment. Through these movements, women have managed to achieve workplace rights that include maternity leave and mitigated workplace related discrimination against women. History of feminism Feminist movements come into play in the 19th century, when women realized that they were going through the injustices and inequalities in terms of governance and role description. Thus, there arose feminist movements that were aimed at liberating women from the cultural practices that perpetuated gender inequality. There were three waves as per the history of feminism, to start with is the wave that began towards the end of the 19th century and early 20th century (Cerwonka 2008). The major strides made at this time included, the right for women to own property, parenting, marriage and equal contract. More prominent is the women’s suffrage movement towards the end of the 19th century where women were fighting for political power, they needed to have the right to vote and vie for elective positions. The success of these push was profound from the fact that there were an increased number of women who were involved in politics in Europe Australia and United States. South Australia granted her women the right to vote and vie for parliamentary positions in the year 1895 and Australia followed in the year 1902 (du Plessis 1990). In Britain the suffrage came in the year 1918 allowing women who are more than 30 years of age and owning a house to vie. Ten years later, all women over the age of 21 were allowed to vie for any political position and vote as well (Mann & Huffman 2005). The second wave of the feminism came in after world war two. It was aimed at liberating women from the violation that they were going through at their homes. Wages were not equal in the work places and women were regarded as the second sex that is not the same as men. They were not granted maternity leaves with pay, hence they were forced to leave work in case they were pregnant. Women were not allowed to serve in various institutions of the country for instance, they could not be allowed to serve in the army. However, this was achieved during this second wave when women were allowed to serve in those institutions after implementation of the national constitution then. In addition, contraceptive pills were introduced in the market, allowing women to avoid unwanted pregnancies that kept them out of work unnecessary. The third wave came in early 1990s to pursue a number of issues. According to Holmgren & Hearn, (2009) in his criticism of the third, there are no cohesive goals for this wave, hence can be termed as the extension of the second wave. Unlike the first and second wave this third wave does not have a particular aim that it is pursuing. Instead, it has a number of issues that it is tackling that include gender violence that has managed to bring about awareness among women on sexual issues. Secondly, is the reproductive rights which are aimed at ensuring that women gain rights to contraception and abortion. The wave has worked hard to ensure that there is no country that denies its citizens that right to control their birth plans. However, the reproductive rights issue, too, is not a prerogative of the third wave, it had been tackled in the second wave thus seems to be a continuation of the second wave. Another fight that had been fresh in the third wave is the fight against rape in the world today it includes the slut walk that was exacerbated by the statement of Toronto’s police officer Michael in the year 2011 April when he said that women should not dress like sluts to avoid rape. Among other issues in the contemporary society truckled in the third wave include glass ceiling, maternity policies that are not fair, sexual harassment at the workplaces (Tickner 2011). The issue were the major cause of the development of the feminist in the early 19th century. However as time went by, there was the development of the international relations body that cannot be avoided form the unique nature of interaction between countries. Women too after a long time of isolation, came in with the feminists theories that have played a role in the international relations sector. Some of the issues that are presented have a lot of relevance in the international relations and sometimes some do not (Tickner 1997). Feminism with international relations Feminism which is the study of gender in the international politics, became popular in the 1990s. Feminism was developed during the third wave of feminism with the ethos highlighting the role of women in international relations. The approach argued that women’s experiences were excluded from international relations studies hence they had to be included. These scholars, pushed for integration of feminism in the study of international politics. The push to integrate feminism was after they had achieved a lot in the national politics, fighting for womens rights which had been a great success by the 1990s. The idea of including feminism in international relations, sought to bring onto the light the large number of roles that women played in the international politics. It was evident that women played a great role as diplomat wives, plantation sector workers, sex workers in various military bases during the international war among others. Hence the main reason for inclusion of feminism, was meant to change ones assumptions, on international politics once they look at from the women’s perspective. They wanted to ensure that the roles played by women in the international politics are brought into book since it had been ignored over time (Bethke Elshtain 2001). Feminist international relations are aimed at establishing on how international politics are affected by both male and female differences, paying attention to the way the different disciplines like security war among others are gendered in the international relations. There has been a merger of the feminist working in the international political economy and those feminist working for the international relations. The merger occurred because, there has been diversification on the focus of feminists form just international relations on state wars, security and diplomacy to establishing the effect of gender in shaping the global political economy as depicted presently. According to Enloe (2000) there are a number of issues that have to be presented in the international relations, for instance, the author argues that when discussing ceasefire, there is a tendency to alienate female in the whole process when the word combat is used. As Donnelly, (2000) explains the word combat is used to be mean simply that the only way to cease fire is by use of men carrying guns while cutting out women who are integrated in the war from the scene. She argues that women play a great role in the war for example acting as cooks, porters and forced wives of the combats ‘male’. Therefore the effect of war and peace during the whole time for women is eliminated which is not right since each one of them plays a role in the war and it is important to establish how the war affects or is affected by women too. On the other hand, one of the international relations scholars Cerwonka, (2008) explains the reason as to why there is so much masculinization in the international relations disciplines is that the disciplines have been dominated by male, hence shaping everything to look masculine. Female on the other hand have played a minimal role in the forefront of negotiations. A factor that is forcing feminist, come into the international relations studies, to impact the international relations professionals with the facts that female have been left behind in the whole process hence they need to be incorporated. At the same time, more women are being incorporated into the system to ensure that they are in the mainstream of the international relations too. Feminist anti-militarization Anti-militarization has been always been associated with feminism and masculinity have shaped state identity, foreign policy and security. Feminist seeks to establish how these definitions and perspectives have been socially constructed. Feminist in the international relations plays a role by opposing immense use of weapons for mass destruction and establishes that gender is the major reason for militarization propagation. In these spheres, gender is associated with power where the stronger ones are perceived to be masculine and the weaker ones associated mostly with emotions are identified with feminism. Application of anti-militarisation, cannot work in most instances in the world today, terrorism which has become a thorn in the society has to be combated by the use of military. Thus these theory sometimes loses relevance in most of the world situation whereby, there increased attacks all over by the use of crude weapons by various terrorist which calls for retaliation. For instance, in most of the interaction, crisis that have been experienced towards the end of these 20th century after the involvement of feminist in international relations, there have been a number of attacks that have called for the use of military to bring to an end the surge. For instance Middle East has been a thorn in the security and peace of the world today (Mann & Huffman 2005). First it was the gulf wars that saw the use of weapons of mass destruction. After that, there has been increased rates of terrorism in the world today, with much need for international intervention to combat this groups that have gone multinational and too sophisticated to be handled by a single nation hence calling for help from all over. Gender involvement in policy formation, implementation, evaluation and governance is one of the major issues that have been brought out in the gender theory and feminists. These issues, have been championed for by a number of feminists with their main aim being to ensure that there is the mainstreaming of gender to discursive and institutional politics. To do so, there are a number of subdivisions in the theory that explains the issues which include: liberal feminism where the feminists, emphasis on the need to have both male and female lived realities to be utilized in the process of policy formulation. The involvement of men and women’s lived experiences is ensuring that both genders are involved in the process of policy making so that they can bring in first hand experiences of lived realities of both genders. Involvement of men and is relevant in the international relations for the fact that it ensures that all people are included in the process in different perspectives. That will ensure that the policies formulated are not biased and at the same time cater for the needs of all the individuals involved. Difference feminism, is geared towards the empowering of women peculiarly by designing, implementing and evaluating policies in a specific way which should account for the cultural difference between women and men at the same time bring out their significance. These difference feminism, goes further to describe, a woman at the same time coming up with reasons as to why they should have those unique policies that are designed, implemented and evaluated in a particular way. The difference feminism is relevant since women and men practice different cultural practises. Thus, it is important for policy makers, to be aware of this distinct difference so that they can be able to come up with a comprehensive policy that is all inclusive. Female are unique and they have different needs from those of men and they are affected differently from men by the international relations disciplines like war and security. Most of the time, they are victims of rape and other atrocities in case war broke out (Holmgren & Hearn 2009). Thus, they need to be addressed differently and in a more precise and explicit manner so that they can mitigate the atrocities that impend these people. At the same time, in post war, there is need to approach the affected people with knowledge about the different circumstances they went through. Men and women face different challenges in case of such situations. Therefore, it is important to include all the possible outcomes in the process and the only way to do that is by identifying the differences as presented by gender. Poststructuralist feminism, regards diversity and differences as part of the social construction, at the same time, ensures that the divergence is put into consideration while formulating policies. Paying attention to the diversity is quite important for the fact that all over the world, there are different cultures that are instigated by the differences in religion, race and social classes (Sutch & Elias 2007). Therefore, to come up with the comprehensive and all inclusive policies, there is a need to first of all ensure that there is an understanding of how diverse the involved characters are in their different social construction. That will be essential in ensuring that, an all-inclusive policy of faulted that does not violate any of the users rights Conclusion Concisely, feminism in international relations is crucial in ensuring that there an all-inclusive ways of governance. At the same time, policies which are the guidelines in tackling most of the issues are guided partly by feminist hence ensuring that there is a comprehensive document. As observed, feminism despite the fact it was originally formed to fight for the rights of women as it developed through the three waves, has developed to be the voice of the weak in the society. It does not only protect the rights of women, but also of men by ensuring there is putting into consideration different cultures as they constructed socially. It ensures that these differences are prioritized in the process of policy formulation. That makes the issue raised by feminists in the international relations relevant and very useful in the process of solving most of the international stalemates. Reference list Bethke Elshtain, J., 2001. Women and War. Women A Cultural Review, 11, p.301. Caprioli, M., 2007. Feminist Methodologies for International Relations. Perspectives on Politics, 5, p.670. Cerwonka, A., 2008. Traveling Feminist Thought: Difference and Transculturation in Central and Eastern European Feminism. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 33, pp.809–832. Donnelly, J., 2000. Realism and International Relations. System, p.244. ENLOE, C. H. (2000). Bananas, beaches and bases: making feminist sense of international politics. Berkeley, CA, University of California Press. Holmgren, L.E. & Hearn, J., 2009. Framing “men in feminism”: theoretical locations, local contexts and practical passings in men’s gender-conscious positionings on gender equality and feminism. Journal of Gender Studies, 18, pp.403–418. Mann, S.A. & Huffman, D.J., 2005. The Decentering of Second Wave Feminism and the Rise of the Third Wave. Science & Society, 69, pp.56–91. Du Plessis, M., 1990. “Am I That Name?”: Feminism and the Category of Women in History (review). Philosophy and Literature, 14, pp.432–433. Sutch, P. & Elias, J., 2007. International Relations: The Basics, Tickner, J., 1997. You Just Don’t Understand: Troubled Engagements between Feminists and IR Theorists. International Studies Quarterly, 41, pp.611–632. Tickner, J.A., 2011. Feminist Security Studies: Celebrating an Emerging Field. Politics & Gender, 7, pp.576–581.  Read More