8. Gender Research in International Relations

This chapter begins by introducing some of the classic works in IR, a field founded around the time of World War I, demonstrating their masculine bias that is evident in their focus on war and security. Next, the chapter overviews some feminist scholarship that has entered the field in the last twenty-five years and some of the very different issues on which it has focused. It suggests that feminists are using very different methodologies from conventional IR to understand world politics. Feminists claim that we cannot fully understand international politics or the workings of the global economy without a gender analysis. In conclusion, the chapter describes some of the ways in which women’s issues have been introduced onto the agenda of the United Nations