Feminist Theories of International Relations

Why Feminist Theories of IR?

Necessity for Separate Theories: Feminist theorists argue for separate feminist theories of international relations rather than adopting mainstream or postmodernist approaches.
Differential Impact: The international system impacts men and women differently.
- Example: Cynthia Enlow on sex tourism: The global economy disproportionately traps women in the international sex tourism industry.
- While men are also trapped, it's a far smaller percentage relative to the number of women affected.
War and Peace:
- During times of war, women are more likely to be pressured or coerced into exchanging sexual favors for protection or resources.
- They are also more likely to be targets of sexual violence.
- While sexual violence against boys and men occurs, it is relatively rare compared to the commonality for women.
Policy of Sexual Violence:
- Sexual violence against women is sometimes a deliberate policy in warfare, targeting the opposition's women.
- Examples of gender violence include:
  - World War II: Coercion of Korean women as "comfort women" (sex slaves) for the Japanese military.
  - 1971 conflict between India and Pakistan: Pakistani government used sexual violence to intimidate separatists in what becomes Bangladesh, with some accounts suggesting 200,000 women were sexually assaulted.
  - Bosnian phase of the Yugoslav civil war: Bosniak women deliberately targeted to coerce surrender or retreat.
  - ISIS: Exploitation of Yazidi women in Northern Iraq and Northeastern Syria, including forcing birth control to continue sexual assault without violating their interpretation of religious scripture.
  - South Sudan: Warlords allowing soldiers to pillage and rape as payment.
Achieving Positive Change: Only by focusing on women and the differential impact can positive change be achieved.
- International courts treating rape as a serious crime is a recent development.
- In 2016, a warlord in the Democratic Republic Of The Congo was convicted for sexual atrocities committed by his troops in the Central African Republic in the early 2000s.
- This progress is attributed to the added focus on women in war.

Different Feminist Approaches to IR

Variety of Theories: There are various feminist theories of international relations, but due to time constraints, not all can be covered.
Excluded Theories: Marxist feminist and postcolonial feminists will not be covered.
Theories to be Covered:
- Essentialist feminists.
- Liberal feminists.
- Critical theory feminists.
- Postmodern feminists.
Terminology: The terms essentialist feminist, liberal feminist, postmodern feminist, and critical theory feminist are used in this course, though different scholars may prefer other terminology.

Essentialist Feminist Theories of IR

Root Cause: Essentialist feminists attribute observed behavior in the international system to biological differences between men and women.
Biology as Foundation: Biology is the ultimate foundational element that produces everything else.
Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus: This metaphor illustrates the essentialist view.
Childbirth and Nurturing:
- Women are more involved in child birthing and rearing.
- Essentialists argue that women are biologically predisposed to be more nurturing and compassionate.
- Men lack this connection and may be resentful or fearful of women's ability to give birth.
Observed Behavior: Biological differences, carried through socialization, influence observed behavior, with women more likely to choose nonviolent, cooperative solutions, and men more likely to engage in violence.
Politics and International Relations: This essentialist view has impacted politics and international relations.
Suffrage Movement: Served as part of what became the of a very powerful suffrage movement in The United States and Western Europe for women.
- The essentialists argued that the world would be a better place if women got the vote because women would bring in their perspectives, their more nurturing perspectives or whatever.
Influence in International Relations: The essentialist feminist view was influential in the study and practice of international relations from the late 1800s to about 1940, with a high point from 1900 to about 1930.
Impact:
- Women's Peace Party:
  - Created in The United States in 1915 by Crystal Eastman.
  - Organized the International Congress of Women in The Hague in 1916.
- International Congress of Women:
  - A pacifist movement that brought together representatives, women in particular from not just the countries that were at war, but from neutral countries as well to try and find an end, a way out of the carnage of the bloodshed of the first World War.
  - Pushed for neutral nations to sponsor negotiations to end the war.
  - Advocated for equal representation of women in the peace process, believing women would bring more cooperative and nurturing values.
  - Called for universal suffrage and equal representation of men and women in government.
  - The idea is if you leave all of the decision making to the men from Mars, you're gonna get, you know, violent solutions. You're gonna get war. Right?
Unsuccessful Outcome: Ultimately, they were unsuccessful.
Continued Influence: Essentialist views have not completely disappeared and continue to surface.
- Fukuyama's evolutionary biology article discusses how aggression, violence, war, and intense competition for dominance are more closely associated with men and women, and it's biologically hardwired in chimpanzees.
- Conference Board of Canada argued that having at least three women on a corporate board fosters greater creativity and encourages new ideas.
- Bloomberg and the Sasukawa Peace Foundation published a study that better performance on developing policies and methods to address climate change.
- The Trudeau government Minister of innovation, Navdeep Bain, indicated that it was good for the bottom line as well.
- 2012 survey of female politicians showed that two thirds believed that there would be less war in the world if women held a larger share of political power.
- UN has reported that the presence of female peacekeepers can positively impact peacekeeping operations.

Critiques of The Essentialist Model

**Logic of Essentialism:
**
- Arguing that women are better at some things due to biology implies they are worse at others.
- This could limit women's opportunities by suggesting they are not suited for certain roles.
**Factual Basis:
**
- The belief that women are inherently more nurturing and peace-loving is not always accurate.
- War is not solely a product of men, and peace is not solely a product of women.
**Political Dimension:
**
- Not all women oppose war; some, like the Pankhurst sisters, advocated for greater war efforts during World War I.
- Early feminists, such as Virginia Woolf, saw some positive aspects of women's war participation.
- Some women, especially in the 1930s, supported British fascist movements.
- Studies suggest that female political leaders may be more likely to choose violence to gain approval.
Women have indirectly contributed war, frankly, throughout history, including here in Canada They entered the, different segments of the economy and therefore freed up men to go do some of the fighting, but they also served as auxiliaries such as in the world wars.
Women in war crimes
- Women actively and directly participate in war:
  - Some figures like Joan of Arc, Boudicca, and Viking shieldmaidens, but there is evidence of it occurring amongst the Vikings.
  - Women warriors in the Kingdom Of Dahomey.
  - Women in military units for fighting combat or police, especially the Soviet Union during World War II and the current roles around the world. For example, Joan of arc and Canada being the one job that women are not allowed to do in the Canadian military is, they cannot serve as either Catholic or Muslim chaplains in the Canadian military
- Women in war crimes suggests that not only do women, you know, advocate for war in a political sense, not only do they play indirect roles, you know, noncombatant roles in the military, not only do they part of the actual armed forces, but, unfortunately, there is evidence of women participating in war crimes as well, which belies their peaceful, nurturing nature that the essentialist talk about.
  - Since the end of the Cold War, as many as one quarter of all suicide bombers have been women. * Some women (40%) committed assault on other women. (Democratic Republic of Congo case).