Ann Tickner’s article revolves
around deconstructing the roots of patriarchy in order to understand the
various levels at which women at oppressed. She talks about Simone
de Beauvoir who herself was an influential
figure when it came to analyzing the marginalization of women. Beauvoir in her
own work presented this idea that men view women as the ‘other’ in society. They then use this as a justification for not
understanding the problems and opinions of women. Moreover, she argued that
this type of stereotyping is always done by those in power towards the marginalized.
I believe this point is extremely applicable because making women feel as the ‘other’
is what isolates them from the daily societal tasks.
Based
on the history of oppression we come to see that even in the field of IR the role played by women is limited as compared to the role
played by men. Also, the idea of women being involved in international
relations is somewhat new as it had not been prevalent to a large extent
before. Moreover, the basic purpose of Tickner’s book is to establish the
importance of women in the field of International Relations. She attempts to evaluate
the importance of gender when studying international relations. She argues that
politics like any other field is also dominated by men. All the theories
presented are relevant to men and do not mention the parts that women could
play in the international system.
I believe that the arguments that
she presents are valid because the fact that men do dominate the political arena
cannot be denied. For example, in Pakistan the president can only be male. This
goes on to show the height of injustice and inequality that prevails within our
own country
I liked your post, especially its heading. Adding to that, I believe why women participation is important in IR because they can provide more insights and ideas for foreign policy and this is what Ticker has also pointed out
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and Taha. Women have several ways of viewing certain things that men do not, which can be beneficial for everyone. So there needs to be a change to get more women into more prominent positions.
ReplyDeletePakistani example to justify the case is good. While we consider that specific occupations are perceived to be designed for men such as pilots and armed forces, we see this view being negated by the fact that the presence of women in air-force and armed forces is rising. we can see such instances in Pakistan as well.
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