Politics & International Relations
Equality Feminism
Equality feminism is a branch of feminism that focuses on achieving gender equality by advocating for equal rights and opportunities for women in all aspects of society. It emphasizes the importance of dismantling systemic barriers and discrimination to create a more equitable and just society for all individuals, regardless of gender.
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7 Key excerpts on "Equality Feminism"
eBook - PDFDemocracy and Northern Ireland
Beyond the Liberal Paradigm?
- A. Little(Author)
- 2004(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
As it emerged through the writings of early theorists such as Mary Wollstonecraft, feminism was concerned with the extension of liberal rights to women on the same basis as men. Thus, for example, Wollstonecraft argues that women had the same abilities and capacities as men but that these 137 A. Little, Democracy and Northern Ireland © Adrian Little 2004 were not developed through inequalities in education. Systemic changes could enable women to realise their potential in the same way as men and therefore there was a case for women achieving equal rights to those enjoyed by men in liberal democracies. These ideas would remain (and still are) influential in feminist theory through the struggles for enfranchisement, reproductive rights and so on, but since the 1960s feminist politics has taken on a new dimension. Where tra- ditionally liberal feminism was egalitarian insofar as its primary concern was with rights and women’s equality with men, radical feminists began to challenge liberal strategies for the emancipation of women and broaden the scope of feminist theory to grapple with cul- tural issues and the nature of relations in what had up until this time been designated as the private sphere as well as the public world of pol- itics and economics. Radical feminists of the 1970s began to focus more directly not only on the equality of women with regard to men, but also what it was that differentiated women from men. Thus, the focus shifted from an egalitarian politics to one concerned with differ- ence, albeit without relinquishing the concern for formal equality that had animated earlier feminist politics. Here the spotlight was moved from the shared capacities of men and women to what essentially dis- tinguished women from men, such as the ‘ethic of care’. The argu- ment, in short, was that patriarchal society valued masculine values and attributes over and above those that were more feminine.
eBook - PDFWomen, Gender, and World Politics
Perspectives, Policies, and Prospects
- Peter R. Beckman(Author)
- 1994(Publication Date)
- Praeger(Publisher)
I call this combination "Critical/Feminist Theory," or a "gender-in-International-Relations" per- spective. Liberal feminists have underscored the absence of women from both the practice and study of international relations. This absence has been used in the past to defend the supposed gender neutrality of the study of world politics. Criticizing it is therefore important. Liberal feminists challenge that claim and effectively give voice to women scholars and previously si- lenced practitioners of world politics, as well as expand the boundaries of the field. Similarly, Radical feminism not only challenges the assumption that mainstream International Relations theory has been produced in a value- neutral way, but also points to the importance of expanding the arena of legitimate inquiry in world politics beyond its traditional focus on war and peace. Along with other critics of this tradition, Radical feminism insists on exploring the constitutive elements of all international activity, not merely the surface appearance of interstate rivalry, which has been privi- leged through Realism. Finally, Feminist Postmodernists have emphasized the ways in which identity and meaning are contingent and socially constructed. This is im- portant in International Relations because it underscores the ways in which the topics that are considered important, the ways of posing questions, and the approach to studying them, are created rather than natural. A Critical/Feminist account of world politics that is sensitive to gender relations should attempt to incorporate many of the insights of the above types of feminist theorizing while overcoming their limitations. Like Lib- eral feminists, we are interested in documenting the underrepresentation of women in particular spheres, or describing the unfair burdens borne by women as a result of particular legislative practices.
eBook - PDFInternational Relations and the Challenge of Postmodernism
Defending the Discipline
- D. S. L. Jarvis, Darryl S. L. Jarvis(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- University of South Carolina Press(Publisher)
The only objective evident in the new identity politics seems to be the “transgression of boundaries,” where everything no matter how disparate is assumed to be related to international politics and where the purview of our disciplinary lenses are counseled to have no focus but be encompassing of all things social, political, and economic. Feminist (Re)Visions of the Facts Apart from the problematic nature of identity discourse as a theoretical avenue germane to International Relations, there is much else in postmod-ern feminist writings that are also questionable. Adam Jones, for example, is concerned about the exclusivity with which women are made the onto-logical essence of gendered analyses, creating skewed commentaries that, rather than frame the important question of gender in more inclusive ways, tends to imprison it amid a radical matriarchal discourse. 122 Unfortunately, this all too often leads to narratives and modes of analysis whose treatment of the facts in international relations is, at best, suspect. One of the recur-rent themes in feminist analyses of international politics, for example, is that women everywhere suffer more violence, intimidation, torture, mutilation, and abuse than do men who otherwise perpetrate these crimes. When Ann Tickner attempts to draw attention to the “particular vulnerabilities of women within states,” for instance, “the phrase ‘particular vulnerabilities’ suggests not just an analytically separable category, but a disproportionate degree of vulnerability.” 123 Yet, if we look at the facts the contrary is true: 170 International Relations and the Challenge of Postmodernism men direct the overwhelming majority of their violence toward other men.
eBook - PDFGender, Politics and Institutions
Towards a Feminist Institutionalism
- M. Krook, F. Mackay, M. Krook, F. Mackay(Authors)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
Academic interest has mirrored and par- alleled growing political activism and advocacy around the political under-representation of women, the promotion and institutionaliza- tion of gender equality as a social and political goal, and the increased presence of women – including feminists – in political and state organi- zations, and as legislative, political, and bureaucratic actors. Fuelling this interest, the last three decades have seen substantial institutional change with significant consequences for women, for gender relations, and for gender equality. These changes include broad restructuring trends in many advanced, democratic welfare states involving processes such as marketization, regionalization, decentrali- zation, and constitutional reform (see for example, Banaszak et al. 2003). Meanwhile, efforts at institutional redesign have been experienced glo- bally in both peaceful and violent transitions to democracy, sparking new processes of state- and institution-building in successive waves of democratization across Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia (Waylen 2007). In the course of these develop- ments, demands for gender equality have become part of broader politi- cal discourses of democracy and modernization, as new international norms have diffused through global institutions and networks (Krook 2009; Towns 2010). Early feminist work on gender and institutions, however, generally overlooked the role of institutional processes and practices in reinforc- ing and reproducing gender inequality (Witz and Savage 1992). More specifically, the causes of gender inequality were understood to exist at the macro-level, rooted in a stratifying system or structure known as ‘patriarchy’. Institutions and organizations, therefore, were not the direct cause of inequality in, and of themselves. Rather, they were inter- esting only insofar as they illustrated or reflected a ‘more general set of
Available until 15 Jan |Learn moreThe World of Political Science – The development of the discipline Book Series
The State of the Discipline
- Jane H. Bayes(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Verlag Barbara Budrich(Publisher)
And feminist explo- rations of gendered, racialized, and sexed messages in economic conduct help answer questions about the causes of poverty and inequality. Feminist Inter- national Relations thus has emerged as a field of scholarship central to under- standing the pathologies of our global world. Feminist International Relations – The State of the Field 189 References Abood, Paula, 2003. “The Day the World Did Not Change.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 29, 2: 376-578. Ackerly, Brooke, 2000. Political Theory and Feminist Social Criticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Agathangelou, Anna, 2004. The Global Political Economy of Sex: Desire, Violence, and Insecurity in Mediterranean Nation States. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. – 2002. “Sexing” Globalization in International Relations: Migrant Sex and Do- mestic Workers in Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey.” In Power, Postcolonialism and International Relations, edited by Geeta Chowdhry and Sheila Nair. London: Routledge: 142-169. – and L.H.M. Ling, 2004. “Power, Borders, Security, Wealth: Lessons of Violence and Desire.” International Studies Quarterly. 48, 3: 517-538. Ajayi-Soyinka, Omofolabo, 2003. “The Fashion of Democracy: September 11 and Af- rica.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 29, 2: 603-607. Bakker, Isabella, 2003. “Neo-liberal Governance and the Reprivatization of Social Reproduction: Social Provisioning and Shifting Gender Orders.” In Power, Pro- duction and Social Reproduction, edited by Isabella Bakker and Stephen Gill. Houndsmill and New York: Palgrave: 66-82. Bales, Kevin, 2002. “Because She Looks Like a Child.” In Global Woman, edited by B. Ehrenreich and A. R. Hochschild. New York: Metropolitan Books: 207-229. Benería, Lourdes, 2003. Gender, Development, and Globalization: Economics as if All People Mattered. New York, London: Routledge. Bergeron, Suzanne, 2004. Fragments of Development: Nation, Gender, and the Space of Modernity.
- Jane Bayes(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Verlag Barbara Budrich(Publisher)
security studies and interna-tional political economy, and probed feminist interventions. There are other important areas where internationally oriented feminist scholars have made important contributions. In particular, there is a proliferating literature on de-mocratization both at the state level and at the international level. Literatures on global civil society, the role of international advocacy networks and of women’s movements fit into this body of literature, as do writings on femi-nist strategy. They are a central part of contemporary feminist International Relations and my lack of attention to these writings here should not distract from their centrality to the field ( e.g. Jaquette 2003; Naples and Desai 2002; Molyneux and Razavi 2002; Braig and Wölte 2002; Liebowitz 2002; Eschle 2001; Kelly et al. 2001; Ackerly 2000). The purpose of this essay is to document the considerable richness of feminist scholarship in International Relations. It is a self-confident scholar-ship that has moved from talking at the mainstream to constituting itself as a distinct body of knowledge that the mainstream ignores at its own peril. Fem-inist analyses of masculinity, war- and peace-making provide trenchant an-swers to understanding IR’s classic question – why war? Feminist studies of women’s work in all economic sectors and in reproduction complete the par-tial picture of globalization offered by liberal economics. And feminist explo-rations of gendered, racialized, and sexed messages in economic conduct help answer questions about the causes of poverty and inequality. Feminist Inter-national Relations thus has emerged as a field of scholarship central to under-standing the pathologies of our global world. Feminist International Relations – The State of the Field 189 References Abood, Paula, 2003. “The Day the World Did Not Change.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 29, 2: 376-578. Ackerly, Brooke, 2000. Political Theory and Feminist Social Criticism.
eBook - PDF- Anne Sisson Runyan(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
At core, intersectional feminisms seek to enhance a “politics of recognition” in which the diverse voices and perspectives of subju-gated women and men, or, more accurately, multiple sexes and genders, are represented equi-tably, and they seek to amplify a “politics of redistribution,” which challenges the classist, sexist, racist, and heterosexist ways in which the material world is divided up (Fraser 1997). A politics of recognition is most central to ameliorating the crisis of representation but also key to challenging the crisis of insecurity, and a politics of redistribution is most central to countering the crisis of sustainability but also key to reducing the crisis of insecurity and enhancing a politics of recognition. At various times, however, there have been tensions between a politics of recognition and a politics of redistribution because one has backgrounded the other. For example, early Marxist feminism was critiqued for focusing on only gendered class relations and material redistributions to solve these inequities without recognition of the need for a greater democ-ratization of struggles to identify and resist not only gendered class exploitation, but also other oppressions based on race, sexuality, and nation that intertwined with, variegated, and intensified class stratification. Later, various forms of cultural and ethnic feminisms were critiqued for a relative inattention to class analysis and a politics of material redistribution as they tended to pursue a kind of politics of recognition known as identity politics.
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