From Practice to Theory: Feminist International Relations and ‘Gender Mainstreaming’

Abstract

I argue that gender mainstreaming across varied policy contexts may help to transform the ‘inferior’ status allocated to feminist international relations (IR) in relation to mainstream (masculinist) IR. I begin by outlining the problem of this inferior status, explaining the historical background to it and reasons for its perpetuation. I then explain gender mainstreaming developments and diverse ways in which they illustrate the importance of gender, including for our understanding of power and inequality. I pose questions about whether these developments and the policy practices related to them can raise consciousness in the wider IR discipline about the nature of feminist IR, and its contribution as an inclusive approach to humanity, focusing on both men and women and relations among and between them. I argue that gender mainstreaming policies related to the core IR area of human security and violence are a key challenge to the constraints of masculinist IR. I conclude that gender mainstreaming could be a site of new conversations and understanding between feminist IR and mainstream IR.