Introduction to International Relations: Feminist Theory

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers key concepts, scholars, and variations of feminist theory within International Relations as presented in the lecture notes.

Neo-neo debate

The late 1980s academic context that prompted feminist dissatisfaction and a push to expand IR beyond state-centric and elite-level focus, that focused on policy makers rather than ordinary people.

Enloe (1989)

Author who used the example of a British woman's holiday choice to illustrate how personal decisions shape international debt and the global political system. Women deciding to cancel her trip in Egypt and go Jamacia instead would influence the international economy.

Active agents

The feminist conceptualization of individuals as participants who shape world politics through family dynamics, consumer behaviors, and travel choices, rather than just objects of the state.

Realism on security

A perspective focused on the national security, the survival of the state. It emphasizes power and military capability as central components of international relations, often viewing the international system as anarchic.

feminist view on security

concept is problematic because, a state can have national security. However, violence can be committed which can be invisible in the international. Realist concept leaves out forms of structural violence.

Problematising peace

peace is understood through a dichotomous way, peace is on the one hand and war is on the other. However, this dichotomy is problematic because peace does not mean the absence of war. States can decide what peace means when peace is attached to the state. Feminisms helps us to ask the question; How does peace look like from the standpoint of marginalised groups?

2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak

A case study where ignoring gender roles led to women being treated as "unpaid caretakers" and excluded from funded initiatives, worsening the epidemic's impact.

Jacqui True (2020)

Scholar who argues that misogynistic attitudes and support for violence against women are crucial causal factors in the rise of violent extremist groups and conflict recurrence.

Liberal feminism

A variation of feminism that focuses on income inequalities, human rights (e.g., H. Clinton's speech), trafficking, and gender violence in war.

Post-colonial feminism

A critique of Western-centric knowledge that challenges the portrayal of "Third World" women as monolithic, victimized subjects while examining intersections of gender, race, and class.

Feminism Without Borders

A work by Mohanty critiquing Western feminism for producing the "third world woman" as an object of intervention to establish Western subjects as liberated and superior.

Monolithic subject

Mohanty's term for the simplified, singular portrayal of the "third world woman" as inherently oppressed, poor, and lacking in agency.