Feminist Methodologies for International Relations
Brooke Ackerly vanderbilt.academia.edu
Feminist Methodologies for International Relations
Over the past two decades feminism has made refreshing, often radical contributions to the study of International Relations (IR). Feminism is no longer a rare import but a well-established approach within IR, as its inclusion in the core texts and scholarly collections of the field testifies. IR students today benefit from the theoretical and empirical space opened up by feminist scholars. Since the late 1980s, feminist scholars have paved the way for serious engagement with gender and theory in a previously gender-blind and theoretically abstract IR field. Despite its increasing recognition, however, the progress of feminist international relations scholarship has been far from straightforward. In a state-centric discipline that is notorious for its lack of self-reflection, developing feminist methodologies and conducting feminist research have been major challenges. However, since all power relations are essential to feminist perspectives and to the feminist research process, femi...

Feminist theories in international relations have gained popularity over the past decades, as evidenced by the emergence of varied feminist theories and their contribution to the field of international relations. In the end of the Cold War era, the world witnessed interdependence resulting from the advent of globalization; the field of international relations also faced many challenges with its theoretical structure. Apart from its main dominant theories such as realism, liberalism, Marxism, etc., feminist theories bring out new perspectives in the study of international relations. Feminist theories basically criticize the existing knowledge system, and their perspective revolves around critical questions about epistemological, ontological, and ethical issues in the field of international relations. In this backdrop, this paper aims to highlight the feminist approach to the study of international relations. It begins with a short introduction to feminism and the concept of gender. Further, it proceeds to discuss the different strands of feminism, such as liberal, radical, socialist, post-modernist, and eco-feminist. After an explanation of the issue under examination, a conclusion has been drawn.

Feminist theorists have contributed to international relations (IR) studies by re-assessing the roles that gender and women play in the international arena. They have explicitly noted gender biases in IR. By using various methodologies, including nontraditional avenues of inquiry, feminist IR re-defines the concepts of power, sovereignty, hegemony, and security. Feminist IR also helps unravel the means by which hegemonic masculinity has become embedded in IR politics. This short essay explores the ways feminist concepts and methodologies allow us to view IR not only from an abstract philosophical and historical point of view but also from the point of view of those who experience IR politics but are usually missing from its mainstream body of knowledge.

Our methods, methodologies, and ways of producing and communicating knowledge not only orient the questions we ask and the knowledges we pursue, but they also direct the effects and purposes of our work. Methods enact our worlds. While many feminist International Relations scholars would agree with this, there are considerable differences in the method/ologies we use, the ways in which we communicate, and what we understand method/ology to mean. These differences were at the heart of the Fifth Annual Critical Voices in Swiss IR Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, titled ‘Feminism, Difference, and Beyond’ and organized by a group of scholars known as the Swiss International Relations Collective (SWIRCO). The conference included keynote addresses by Wendy Harcourt, L.H.M. Ling, and Marysia Zalewski. The conversation here represents further engagement with a number of issues that emerged at the conference as a result of these keynotes.

A growing number of states including Canada, Norway and Sweden have adopted gender and feminist-informed approaches to their foreign and security policies. The overarching aim of this article is to advance a theoretical framework that can enable a thoroughgoing study of these developments. Through a feminist lens, we theorise feminist foreign policy arguing that it is, to all intents and purposes, ethical and argue that existing studies of ethical foreign policy and international conduct are by and large gender-blind. We draw upon feminist International Relations (IR) theory and the ethics of care to theorise feminist foreign policy and to advance an ethical framework that builds on a relational ontology, which embraces the stories and lived experiences of women and other marginalised groups at the receiving end of foreign policy conduct. By way of conclusion, the article highlights the novel features of the emergent framework and investigates in what ways it might be useful for fut...