Understanding Feminist Perspectives on International Security

CHAPTER 5: FEMINISMS CHAPTER 5: FEMINISMS There is not one feminist approach to international security but a range of feminist perspectives that raise distinct questions and focus on different issues. Regardless of the particular feminist approach employed, greater attention to gender prevailing ideas and meanings associated with masculinity and femininity enriches our understanding and expectations associated with international security. Security dynamics have long been presented as gender neutral when in fact international security is infused with gendered assumptions, representations, and practices. Security Studies: An Introduction. 4th Edition. Paul D. Williams and Matt McDonald. Routledge 2023. Paperback ISBN - 9781032162737 Information Classification: General

COHN ET AL. (2005:1) ON GENDER COHN ET AL. (2005:1) ON GENDER Gender is not only about individual identity or what a society teaches us a man or woman, boy or girl should be like. Gender is also a way of structuring relations of power whether that is within families where the man is often considered the head of the household, or in societies writ large, where men tend to be the ones in whose hands political, economic, religious, and other forms of cultural power are concentrated. These two phenomena individual identity and structures of power are significantly related to each other. Hence it is the meanings and characteristics culturally associated with masculinity that make it appear natural and just for men to have the power to govern their families and their societies. Security Studies: An Introduction. 4th Edition. Paul D. Williams and Matt McDonald. Routledge 2023. Paperback ISBN - 9781032162737 Information Classification: General

VARIANTS OF FEMINISM 1: LIBERAL VARIANTS OF FEMINISM 1: LIBERAL FEMINISM FEMINISM Liberal feminists privilege notions of equality and have tended to focus on questions of women s representation within the public sphere. Liberal feminists collect empirical information about women s roles, asking whether they are present in decision-making or in national militaries, for example, and if not, why not? Barriers to women s participation in security decision-making and practice must be identified so that they can be removed. Key questions here, made famous by Cynthia Enloe s book Bananas, Beaches and Bases (1989), are: where are the women and what are they doing? Criticism: does this approach focus too much on women s roles in public, political and economic spaces? Security Studies: An Introduction. 4th Edition. Paul D. Williams and Matt McDonald. Routledge 2023. Paperback ISBN - 9781032162737 Information Classification: General

VARIANTS OF FEMINISM 2: RADICAL VARIANTS OF FEMINISM 2: RADICAL FEMINISM FEMINISM Radical feminists, also called difference or essentialist feminists, focus less on notions of numerical equality and more on notions of difference. Radical feminists tend to argue that men as a group are more aggressive and competitive, while women are more nurturing, holistic and less abstract. Radical feminists view the political as existing everywhere, and point to the ways in which male dominance functions in a domestic sphere, through domestic violence, control over women s reproductive freedoms, and women s sexuality. Criticism: does this approach essentialize and universalize women? Security Studies: An Introduction. 4th Edition. Paul D. Williams and Matt McDonald. Routledge 2023. Paperback ISBN - 9781032162737 Information Classification: General

VARIANTS OF FEMINISM 3: OTHER VARIANTS OF FEMINISM 3: OTHER APPROACHES APPROACHES Three other approaches are notable for their contribution to feminist accounts of international security: Feminist Critical Theory: examines prevailing assumptions about both men and women, arguing that prevailing norms of masculinity and femininity need to be examined and challenged. Gender depends on real, lived conditions of women and men in particular times and places. Feminist Postmodernists: any definition or standpoint about gender will necessarily be partial. Truth claims about gender are assertions of power, not natural or inevitable. Postcolonial Feminism: imperialism is a key force through which identities, including gender, are constructed. We also need to avoid essentializing identity. These approaches are more likely to embrace intersectionality, which suggests that gender needs to be understood alongside other identity categories and unequal relations. Security Studies: An Introduction. 4th Edition. Paul D. Williams and Matt McDonald. Routledge 2023. Paperback ISBN - 9781032162737 Information Classification: General

FEMINISMS AND VIOLENCE FEMINISMS AND VIOLENCE Feminists argue we need to understand and examine all forms of violence against women, including domestic violence, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation and online abuse. Politically motivated violence is also a key concern. Women may be targeted during times of conflict but also intimidated when attempting to vote or participate in demonstrations. Gender-based violence may also be directed at men or boys, queer or trans persons, and gender non-binary and non- conforming persons. Women of colour are often particularly subjected to violence, with gender and race intersecting as bases for violence. Security Studies: An Introduction. 4th Edition. Paul D. Williams and Matt McDonald. Routledge 2023. Paperback ISBN - 9781032162737 Information Classification: General

IMPACTS OF CONFLICT IMPACTS OF CONFLICT Gender neutral analyses of armed conflict regularly do not focus on people at all, instead examining processes or structures. Even when they do focus on people, they tend to focus on the experience of men. Cynthia Enloe (1989) examined the way militaries require women s work in order to function effectively, whether that is acknowledged or not. Women have been targeted in war, in specifically gendered ways. Violence during wartime includes sexual torture, enforced prostitution, sexual slavery, mutilations and sexual trafficking. Focusing only on sexual violence perpetrated against women and girls in armed conflict directs our attention away from many other effects of armed conflict on their lives. Some forms of violence in war target men through femininizing or subjecting them to sexual violence (e.g., abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq). Security Studies: An Introduction. 4th Edition. Paul D. Williams and Matt McDonald. Routledge 2023. Paperback ISBN - 9781032162737 Information Classification: General

WOMEN AS COMBATANTS WOMEN AS COMBATANTS Women regularly take up arms and commit acts of violence, but stories of war tend to focus disproportionately on men. Feminists critique the tendency to position women and men as either combatants (men) or victims (women). Feminist approaches have examined different national approaches to the inclusion of women in national militaries, and their effects. Even if they are participants in war, women are usually ignored or excluded when formal peace processes begin. Security Studies: An Introduction. 4th Edition. Paul D. Williams and Matt McDonald. Routledge 2023. Paperback ISBN - 9781032162737 Information Classification: General

GENDER AND SECURITY GENDER AND SECURITY Feminist approaches draw our attention to the way that the supposedly gender-neutral and objective language of defence strategists enables militarism and violence. Carol Cohn (1987) pointed to the way in which the language of nuclear weapons is highly gendered, enabling and justifying deployment. Ann Tickner (1988) developed a feminist analysis of Hans Morgenthau s principles of political realism, pointing to the gendered nature of his claims. For feminists, masculinist frames can predispose leaders to naturalize highly militarized and violent responses to crises. Security Studies: An Introduction. 4th Edition. Paul D. Williams and Matt McDonald. Routledge 2023. Paperback ISBN - 9781032162737 Information Classification: General

CONCLUSION CONCLUSION There are a range of feminist accounts of international security, drawing our attention variously to the role of women in decision-making, in combat (as both victims and combatants), and pointing to the gendered nature of core concepts and practices of international security. Feminist approaches also ask us to take account of the domestic sphere, shining a light on violence and discrimination against women in their homes and linking this to national and international practices. Increasingly, feminist approaches encourage us to recognize multiple and intersecting axes of discrimination, note the functions of masculinity and femininity as constructs, and recognize harms not only to women but to others on the basis of gender or non-conformity to societal expectations. Security Studies: An Introduction. 4th Edition. Paul D. Williams and Matt McDonald. Routledge 2023. Paperback ISBN - 9781032162737 Information Classification: General

ESSAY / EXAM QUESTIONS ESSAY / EXAM QUESTIONS What does a focus on gender bring to our understanding of international security dynamics? Where are the women and what are they doing in dominant accounts of security in International Relations? Are some feminist approaches more useful than others for understanding contemporary security dynamics? How are meanings and practices of femininity and masculinity constructed through militarism and armed conflict? War is fought by men, for women (and children). Critically evaluate this claim. In what ways are women and girls targeted in armed conflict? Why? Should women be equally able to join the armed forces and participate in combat? Explain your answer. What insights would a feminist approach provide to the security implications of the COVID- 19 pandemic? Security Studies: An Introduction. 4th Edition. Paul D. Williams and Matt McDonald. Routledge 2023. Paperback ISBN - 9781032162737 Information Classification: General

WEBSITES AND AUDIO WEBSITES AND AUDIO- -VISUAL RESOURCES VISUAL RESOURCES Useful Websites The WomanStats Project https://www.womanstats.org Women, Peace, and Security Index (Georgetown University) https://giwps.georgetown.edu/the-index/ UN Women https://www.unwomen.org/en Sexual Violence Research Initiative http://www.svri.org Violence Against Women Net (VAWnet) https://vawnet.org Films and Television Mad Max: Fury Road (2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEJnMQG9ev8 Thelma and Louise (1991): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iBFmKlO4BY The Handmaid s Tale (2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJTonrzXTJs The Day I Became a Woman (2000): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=194rTpQhQF0 GI Jane (1997) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDrXl6WOPZ A Dogfight (1991) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2aQbrQu1I M A Woman in Berlin (2009): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEZxcSf9Hw M The Rape of Nanking (2007): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQnBvs3LTZw Talks Kimberley Hutchings, Feminism and International Relations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajAWGztPUiU Anne Tickner, What has Feminism done for International Relations? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B33FkDx4__k Cynthia Enloe, Women and Militarization https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfCktWyARVo Hope for Tomorrow, Women and War https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajAWGztPUiU Security Studies: An Introduction. 4th Edition. Paul D. Williams and Matt McDonald. Routledge 2023. Paperback ISBN - 9781032162737 Information Classification: General