Session 21- Women in International Relations.

“Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with the absolute truth.”

This quote by Simone de Beauvoir summarizes the gross misrepresentation of truth and the harsh reality of the world that men dominate everything. From defining everything on their own basis, to making sure their point of view is the most valid on any issue, men trump the abilities and the voice of women. We can continuously talk about wanting equal rights and equal representation for both the sexes, but who knows when that day would actually come.

Ann Tickner in this session’s reading introduces the importance of women in the field of International Relations. Throughout this course we have covered all the important aspects and leading theories of International Relations. We have even shifted to constructivism and other parallel theories, so it is about time that the importance of women also gets highlighted when one looks into the discipline of IR.

Tickner feels that the entry of women in the discipline of International Relations has been quite recent and she states that the purpose of her book is to introduce gender as a category of analysis when studying International Relations. She describes how while no matter how much others disagree, international politics is a very gendered activity. While men have dominated the discipline and every theory applies aptly on the male part of the population, it is highly unfair and inappropriate that the women are excluded from these theories. But an easy way to understand this injustice is that since men created these theories, these theories focus on men only. From Realism to Marxism, power, war, strength and violence is synonymous with men. When one thinks of power, automatically it becomes a symbol for the dominance of men.

 An eye opener for me during this reading was when I came across the fact that Tickner extending Joan Scott’s challenge to International Relations claims that the field of International Relations is one of the last social sciences to be touched by gender analysis. This is not because the field does not pay attention to gender, it is because masculinity and the dominance of men has dug its roots way too deep down into the field. It will take quite some time for women to eradicate these roots and find a safe footing in the field of International Relations.

Another topic of interest in the reading was the façade of protection of women as a cause of wars. This is something, which is generally kept well hidden. Rape and violence against women is often the most frequent tools used to destroy the sanity of women during times of war. The present day Zarbe Azab or the War on Terror or going down even more in history, the 1971 war which separated East Pakistan, in every war women were brutally killed, assaulted or raped. It is very famous yet very hidden that our very own Pakistani soldiers raped unaccountable number of women after the war ended. Thus proving that women are grave victims of war.

Thus we can assume that even though there is still a huge difference in the amount of recognition for men when compared to women in the field of International Relations, we can feel a bit better about the fact that people like Tickner are slowly making things better for the female race, making way for the growth of Feminism in the field of International Relations.