Women in International Relationsp

Global Feminist Revolution. Women’s Emancipation Movement. Feminism in International Relations and Discrimination. Gender discrimination. Women in the History of International Relations. Women Officials in the contemporary International Relations.
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Women in International Relations

On the threshold of a global feminist revolution, the Canadian activist Nellie McClung said “Never underestimate the power of the women”. Today, a century later, we are witnessing a radical change regarding women's position in society. Equality in rights of women and men became a natural law, not only stipulated in the constitutions and the UN Charter, but the one that also had managed to take root in the contemporary individual's consciousness.

Woman, as a political figure is not an exception to the rule any more, but rather an innovation that tends to be accepted and set out as a rule. Once, women have entered the area where men have eagerly maintaining the monopoly - Politics, they have been able, due their capabilities contested for so much time, to occupy important positions in field of International Relations and to influence positively the establishment of favorable reports between countries around the world.

Feminism and Women's Emancipation Movement

In a simple definition, feminism means the study of and the movement for women, not as objects, but as subjects of knowledge Martin Griffiths,Terry O'Callaghan,Steven C. Roach, International Relations.The key concepts, Routledge, New York, 2008, p 110. The concept of “feminism” refers to a theoretical doctrine claiming equal treatment before the norms, institutions and public and private practices, regardless of gender, equal opportunities to exercise autonomy and self - affirmations of the person Mihaela Moroiu, Gender studies, Polirom, Iasi, 2004, p 28.

As a conceptual category that defines the defense of the women's dignity and the understanding of their rights, feminism appears in the Renaissance era press Sarah Gwyneth Ross, Woman as Intellect in Renaissance Italy and England, HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2009, pp 12-13. A new image of "Western woman" appears: the culturally normal learned woman who was not a queen, not a nun, and most certainly not a courtesan Eadem, p 15.

The term "feminist" appears in the connotation which we use today in the late nineteenth century in Great Britain, but as an attitude and an approach it has preceded the canonical use of term. The period following the French Revolution is considered the starting point of the movement for women's emancipation based on texts of such revolutionary writer as Olympe de Gouges and Mary Wollstonecraft.

On the verge of World War I appears a movement called the "Suffragettes", which after the first world conflagration have obtained for women the right to vote, stated in 1918 in Great Britain and in 1920 the U.S.. Joshua S. Goldstein, Jon C. Pevehouse, International Relaations, Polirom, Iasi, 2008, p 166

The end of the World War II marked the rise of emancipation movements. Since 1967, the U.S. government launched the programs "Affirmative action" (positive discrimination) for women.

In recent decades took shape a radical postmodernist feminism, called also "anarchic-feminism", the postmodernist feminism has developed a number of demands regarding the language so that it properly reflects participation and possibilities for participation of women in public life and gender differences become more flexible. Joshua S. Goldstein, Jon C. Pevehouse, International Relaations, Polirom, Iasi, 2008, p 162

Today feminism is no longer a prominent direction, but many of its objectives maintained their actuality and are widely shared by the public. Since the assertion of the women's right to freedom, the feminist movement has come a long and complex evolution, under the sign of progress at the doctrinal and organizational level.

Feminism in International Relations and Discrimination

Feminist International Relations is a term used to define the research on women's position in IR, being introduced in the late '80s. After the end of the Cold War the traditional view of IR was reevaluated and for the first time the gender problem was called into discussion.

A work that reflects in the best way gender concerns in the field, is "Bananas, Beaches and Bases" (1990) by Cynthia Enloe.

Liberal feminists believe that when women are allowed to participate in IR they behave like men and have similar results. The refusal to accept and the denial would lead to a waste of specialists, since the capacities of women are not inferior to those of men Joshua S. Goldstein, Jon C. Pevehouse, International Relaations, Polirom, Iasi, 2008, p 167

11 Gillian Youngst, A feminist International Relations: a contradiction in terms?, International Journal of Politics and International Afairs, 2004, p 76

The feminist IR conception involves analyzing how men and women affect and are affected by international politics and the connection between the essential concepts of IR (war, security, etc..) and gender preferences. The study involves not only themes like the states, diplomacy, security, but also the way each gender is involved in the global political economy.

Gender discrimination or sexism is a form of discrimination or devaluation based on a person's sex, this attitudes being based on beliefs in traditional stereotypes.

At the moment women don't suffer from open discrimination formalized in legislation, yet there are subtle methods of discrimination which reduces the chances of women to achieve in areas monopolized by men, including IR. One of these methods is language discrimination; most professions in the IR are masculine gender words which, at psychological level, state that only men can practice this professions. There is no feminine gender of words such as "president", "minister", "diplomat", etc.

According to the report Teaching, Research, and International Politics (TRIP) Survey, the percentage of women studying at the Faculties of IR is of 23, while the percentage of the teachers in the field is 14%. Daniel Maliniak, Amy Oakes, Susan Peterson, Michael J. Tierney, Women in IR, Politics and Gender, 2007, p 122

Generally speaking, IR area is associated with the political sphere, because the IR officials working in the Intergovernmental organizations or diplomatic missions are political personalities.

Although, theoretically, we should enjoy a high quality democracy, the experience of discrimination stop women from choosing or acheiving success in getting a job in the political field. In 2010 only 18.8% of parliamentarians in most countries of the world were women Periodic publication Inter-Parliamentary Union, Geneva, Elvetia, 2011. For the European Union we have other data, thus in the European Parliament 31% of MPs are women. From 1979 until now, only two women, Simone Veil (1979-1982) and Nicole Fontaine (1999-2002) were chairmen of European Parliament. http://www.europarl.europa.eu 12.04.2012

Women in the History of International Relations

Even until the success achieved by the Emancipation movement, women have occupied high political positions and played a decisive role for the evolution of interstate relations. The leaders - women of tribes in Paleolithic and Neolithic ages are examples, that might be a little lacking of eloquence, but they are the ones that certify the practice of matriarch. The long period during which this political system worked successfully, makes us wonder why during the evolution of civilization, the preference was given to male leaders and officials. However, images of women pharaohs, warriors, empresses, activists and presidents remained famous in the history of mankind.

Cleopatra (69-30 BC) - the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt,” a rare example of a ruling queen who raised armies and conducted wars” Bernard A. Cook, Women and War, ABC-Clio, Santa-Barbara, California, 2006, p 123.

Cleopatra was 17 or 18 years old when she became the queen of Egypt, but proved to be a shrewd politician. She was able to regain the throne from her brother Ptolemy XIII and become in 47 BC the only ruler of Egypt. Due to her liaisons with Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony, Cleopatra saved her country from being rapt by the Roman Empire.

Joan of Arc (1412-1431) - a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic Saint.

Named also, The Maid of Orleans,his French young woman is famous for being capable of leading an army during the last part of the Hundred Year's War. Her swift victories in Orleans settled the disputed succession to the throne, but soon after the Charles VII's coronation she was captured and sold to the English King Henry VI.“She marked the history by being a military leader, a breaker of medieval gender roles, a peasant revolutionary, and a religious fanatic”. Bernard A. Cook, Women and War, ABC-Clio, Santa-Barbara, California, 2006, p 332

Anne Boleyn (1507 - 1536) - Queen of England, the initiator of Anglican Church reform.

She was crowned Queen of England on June 1, 1533 in a pageant ceremony at Westminster Abbey.

Anne Boleyn granted petitions, received diplomats, presided at meetings. She played an important role in England's international position by solidifying an alliance with France, establishing a good relationship with the French Ambassador Gilles Pommeraie. David Loades, The Tudor Queens of England, Continuum UK, London, pp 113- 118

On May 2, 1536 Anne was accused of high treason by her husband Henry VIII and executed on...