J.Ann Tickner is an esteemed
scholar in the field of International Relations. Holding multiple important
positions throughout her career and working as a professor for fifteen years at
the school of international relations at a university clearly manifests her
repute in the field.
However, had it not
been a compulsory reading for the session many of us would have been unaware of
such a reputable female scholar in the field of International Relations, which
is predominantly considered an arena for men. Not surprisingly, there are not
many women in this field that have established themselves successfully as
influential sources of knowledge. For Tickner, the primary reason for this has
been the domination of war and strategic policies in international relations
that give men an innate edge over the women. However, as she clearly points out
that ever since the end of the cold war in the 1980’s the ratio of men and
women in the field of international relations has shown a slight tilt in the
favor of women, though not much.
Tickner has been
absolutely right when she pointed out the reason for the lack presence of women
in the study of international relations and though this might make it seem that
IR may forever be a male dominant field the truth is arguably changing.
Electronic media is at its peak and the access to information is more or less
the same for anyone who wishes to access it. Hence the argument about men being
more oriented and better informed than women is vaporizing.
A useful word of advice
for Tickner, in my opinion, would be to leave off the title “feminist
international relations theorist” and just use “international relations
theorist”. The former makes it seem like women are deliberately being kept out
of the circles of the field whereas no such thing is being done. Moreover, international
relations is a field big enough to accommodate the opinions of everyone, so why
act in a manner that seems to divide the field in the long run?
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