ABSTRACT
In this chapter, students will learn about a number of feminist perspectives and the kinds of questions they raise about international security. It also examines some of the empirical research conducted by feminists around questions of security, including work that focuses on the impacts of armed conflict on women, the ways in which women are actors during armed conflict and the gendered associations of war-planning and foreign policymaking. The argument here is that, whichever feminist perspective one adopts, greater attention to gender – the prevailing ideas and meanings associated with masculinity and femininity rather than the facts of biological differences between men and women – enriches our understanding and expectations associated with international security.
