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Feminist Contributions to International Relations

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| Political Science 2I03 – Global Politics Term Paper | Feminist Contributions to International Relations |

Written By: Maryam Burney
Professor: Dr. Andrew LuiTA: Meagan Kinsella Tutorial Section: T06 |

Introduction Feminist research in the past twenty years has been successful enough to make women in international relations more visible. Feminism within IR has now evolved to an extent where disciplinary boundaries are being challenged and new issues and voices are being arisen. Feminists have productively established how the lives of sex workers, domestic servants, home-based workers and those who undergo grueling labour without pay, are also a part of global politics and the international economy (Hutchings et al., 2008, pg. 159). Feminist theory considers the effects of male dominance and how the socially constructed idea of “gender” affects international relations and its related fields. In essence it is not only simply about women, however, it is about the affiliation of masculinity and femininity as socially constructed groups that shape how we acknowledge and experience the political world. The differences that gender makes to global politics are vital to someone looking through a feminist lens. This also requires an individual to question whether or not it is appropriate to assume the characteristics of females (Ticker, 1997, pg. 616). Feminists within are international relations are troubled with a lot of misconceptions that leads to a negative perspective on feminism. Misconceptions such as: females are more “peaceful” than males and women being more nurturing and, therefore they have more peaceful ways to deal with world politics. Some might also believe that feminist IR theory associates global politics with issues surrounding women instead of the vital international relations topics such as wars, trades, security and etc (Tickner,

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