Feminism emerged as a movement and body of ideas that aimed to enhance women’s status and power. Simply put, feminism affirms women’s equality with men, and rejects patriarchy.

2. Feminism
HINA ZAIDI
National Defense University, Islamabad

3. An over view of Feminism
• It originates as a social movement.
• It provides comparison between:
Implication for Political analysis.
Actual preoccupations and achievements.
• We will discuss its evolution as a dialogue around a common
agenda.
• Presentation is divided into three parts
An over view of Feminism
Feminist perspective for Political Science.
Feminism and IR

4. Quotation
The true meanings of feminism is
that: to use your strong womanly
image to gain strong results in the
society.
Pamela Anderson

5. Definition
Feminism emerged as a movement and
body of ideas that aimed to enhance
women’s status and power.
Simply put, feminism affirms women’s
equality with men, and rejects patriarchy.

6. Introduction
Introduced gender as a relevant
empirical category and analytical tool for
understanding global power relations as
well as a normative position from which
to consider alternative world orders.

7. Strands of Feminism
•Liberal feminism:
Liberal feminism movement focuses on eliminating female
subordination.
•Marxist feminism:
Marxist feminism arises out of the doctrine of Karl Marx whose
theory is centered less on material aspects of life than on the more broadly defines
social ones.
•Radical feminism:
Radical feminism takes the point of view that society under
patriarchal rules in necessarily oppressive to women.

8. Feminism and Political Science
 Potential implication of feminism strands for political analysis.
 Traditionally political scientists were almost all men and numbers of women still
relatively low in 1970.
 Different stages:
First stage; was mounting a critique of male political science for its virtual exclusion of
women as political actor.
Second stage; sometimes dismissively referred to as ‘adding women in’ , and entailed a
much more systematic investigation into the extent of women’s underrepresentation and its
institutional and non-institutional causes.
In third stage more fundamental questions were raised about their discipline, about
limitations of the characteristic methodologies employed in political science, about the way
that politics is conceptualized; and about the ‘gendered’ character of political institutions
and processes. Linking these to broader developments in feminist thinking.

9. The development of Feminism in IR Theory
• First wave of feminism: Feminist movement finds its roots
in the abolitionist movement in 1830s.
• Second wave of feminism: suffrage movement. Late 19th to
early 20th c.
• Third wave of feminism: equal legal rights & political
participation. Mid to late 20th century.

10. Important aspects of feminist research
• First generation of Feminism in IR late 1980’s:
For instance, in the enthusiastic rush to analyze the widespread
process of democratic transition, especially evident in Latin America,
through the 1980’s political scientists largely ignored questions about
women’s participation or the implications of associated institutional and
policy changes for women.
• Second generation:
A second generation of feminist researchers has had to take up these
basic questions and developed feminist IR by making gender a central
analytic category in studies of foreign policy, security and global political
economy.

11. Typology
Christine Sylvester has applied an interesting typology of
feminist theory to international relations.
Feminist Empiricism:
Feminist empiricism combine both the objectives and
observations of feminism, it relies mainly on mainstream which
is part of the positivism but feminist empiricism and the
positivism are two different approaches. This approach
evaluates whether the states or worldwide capitalist process
should be focused on, and the examination of social attitudes
and structures that influence gender international relations.

12. Cont….
• Feminist Standpoint Theories:
Feminist standpoint this approach argues that a women's point
of view should be taken to account not a man's point of view, a woman's
everyday lifestyle and how they construct their worlds socially. This
theory states that because women are portrayed differently to men in
most societies they lead them to hold different types of knowledge
compared to men. This theory does not deny any traditional views rather
states valid insights of the world of politics.
• Feminist postmodernism:
This covers more than one likelihood towards the ' falsely
universalizing prospective' that tends to create an internal tension, and
states that the 'one true story' by the standpoint feminist as a very
dangerous fiction.

13. The Feminist Standpoint on Power, Sovereignty,
Reciprocity:
• The Feminist standpoint on power, sovereignty and reciprocity, these need
to re-analyzed for the feminist as they are the key concepts as it will ask if
male constructions have influenced the mind in the way they think about
international relations.
• Power - An actor that influences another person to act in respectful
outcomes, which affects ones environment.
• Sovereignty - Defined as 'power as control' as it means supremacy over all
authorities, final and political authority which casts back the long-
established thinking of males.
• Reciprocity - Is similar to sovereignty as it the possibility to have a
sovereign society, it should be taken into account that other states had the
right to claim what they wish and enjoy it.

14. Feminist Empiricism and Postmodernism
• Feminist empiricism and postmodernism - Is a
sociological approach the studies on why the
difference between genders affects the modern
interstate system, and how women are victims of the
modern international relations as the enforcements
were very harmful and dangerous the females and
their lives.

15. Goals of Feminism
The goals of feminism are:
To demonstrate the importance of women
To reveal that historically women have been
subordinate to men
To bring about gender equity.

16. Conclusion
• We can summarize the feminist impulse as ‘a political position aiming to alter the power
balance between men and women.
• Despite its internal diversity and debates, the feminist perspective is badly needed in
political science.
• In the future, feminist political science will need to engage more fully with questions
surrounding the formation of masculinities, reflected in a growing body of literature and
research , without losing hold of its original political commitment to women.
• The feminist perspective, for its part, should be able to give theories of complex
interdependence and institutional change, more gender conscious formulation and also
to criticize the gender bias to be found in conceptions of interdependence and
institutionalization created by men.

17. Thanks for Precious Time