Feminism HINA ZAIDI

National Defense University, Islamabad

An over view of Feminism• It originates as a social movement.• It provides comparison between:

Implication for Political analysis.Actual preoccupations and achievements.

• We will discuss its evolution as a dialogue around a common agenda.

• Presentation is divided into three partsAn over view of FeminismFeminist perspective for Political Science.Feminism and IR

Quotation The true meanings of feminism is that: to use your strong womanly image to gain strong results in the society.

Pamela Anderson

Definition

Feminism emerged as a movement and body of ideas that aimed to enhance women’s status and power.

Simply put, feminism affirms women’s equality with men, and rejects patriarchy.

IntroductionIntroduced gender as a relevant empirical category and analytical tool for understanding global power relations as well as a normative position from which to consider alternative world orders.

Strands of Feminism •Liberal feminism: Liberal feminism movement focuses on eliminating female subordination.

•Marxist feminism: Marxist feminism arises out of the doctrine of Karl Marx whose theory is centered less on material aspects of life than on the more broadly defines social ones.

•Radical feminism:

Radical feminism takes the point of view that society under

patriarchal rules in necessarily oppressive to women.

Feminism and Political Science Potential implication of feminism strands for political analysis.

Traditionally political scientists were almost all men and numbers of women still relatively low in 1970.

Different stages:

First stage; was mounting a critique of male political science for its virtual exclusion of women as political actor.

Second stage; sometimes dismissively referred to as ‘adding women in’ , and entailed a much more systematic investigation into the extent of women’s underrepresentation and its institutional and non-institutional causes.

In third stage more fundamental questions were raised about their discipline, about limitations of the characteristic methodologies employed in political science, about the way that politics is conceptualized; and about the ‘gendered’ character of political institutions and processes. Linking these to broader developments in feminist thinking.

The development of Feminism in IR Theory

• First wave of feminism: Feminist movement finds its roots

in the abolitionist movement in 1830s.

• Second wave of feminism: suffrage movement. Late 19th to

early 20th c.

• Third wave of feminism: equal legal rights & political

participation. Mid to late 20th century.

Important aspects of feminist research

• First generation of Feminism in IR late 1980’s:

For instance, in the enthusiastic rush to analyze the widespread process of democratic transition, especially evident in Latin America, through the 1980’s political scientists largely ignored questions about women’s participation or the implications of associated institutional and policy changes for women.

• Second generation:

A second generation of feminist researchers has had to take up these basic questions and developed feminist IR by making gender a central analytic category in studies of foreign policy, security and global political economy.

Typology

Christine Sylvester has applied an interesting typology of feminist theory to international relations.

Feminist Empiricism:

Feminist empiricism combine both the objectives and observations of feminism, it relies mainly on mainstream which is part of the positivism but feminist empiricism and the positivism are two different approaches. This approach evaluates whether the states or worldwide capitalist process should be focused on, and the examination of social attitudes and structures that influence gender international relations.

Cont….

• Feminist Standpoint Theories:

Feminist standpoint this approach argues that a women's point of view should be taken to account not a man's point of view, a woman's everyday lifestyle and how they construct their worlds socially. This theory states that because women are portrayed differently to men in most societies they lead them to hold different types of knowledge compared to men. This theory does not deny any traditional views rather states valid insights of the world of politics.

• Feminist postmodernism:

This covers more than one likelihood towards the ' falsely universalizing prospective' that tends to create an internal tension, and states that the 'one true story' by the standpoint feminist as a very dangerous fiction.

The Feminist Standpoint on Power, Sovereignty, Reciprocity:

• The Feminist standpoint on power, sovereignty and reciprocity, these need to re-analyzed for the feminist as they are the key concepts as it will ask if male constructions have influenced the mind in the way they think about international relations.

• Power - An actor that influences another person to act in respectful outcomes, which affects ones environment.

• Sovereignty - Defined as 'power as control' as it means supremacy over all authorities, final and political authority which casts back the long-established thinking of males.

• Reciprocity - Is similar to sovereignty as it the possibility to have a sovereign society, it should be taken into account that other states had the right to claim what they wish and enjoy it.

Feminist Empiricism and Postmodernism

• Feminist empiricism and postmodernism - Is a sociological approach the studies on why the difference between genders affects the modern interstate system, and how women are victims of the modern international relations as the enforcements were very harmful and dangerous the females and their lives.

Goals of Feminism

The goals of feminism are: To demonstrate the importance of women

To reveal that historically women have been subordinate to men

To bring about gender equity.

Conclusion

• We can summarize the feminist impulse as ‘a political position aiming to alter the power balance between men and women.

• Despite its internal diversity and debates, the feminist perspective is badly needed in political science.

• In the future, feminist political science will need to engage more fully with questions surrounding the formation of masculinities, reflected in a growing body of literature and research , without losing hold of its original political commitment to women.

• The feminist perspective, for its part, should be able to give theories of complex interdependence and institutional change, more gender conscious formulation and also to criticize the gender bias to be found in conceptions of interdependence and institutionalization created by men.

Thanks for Precious Time