ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the empirical and theoretical framework of feminist international relations theory and the rich literature on militarism, hegemonic and subordinate femininities, and civilian-military relations. The commonality of the feminist international relations enterprise is the utilization of gender as the privileged category of analysis to highlight women's perspectives on social issues and research. The chapter explores the utility of feminist analyses in international relations theory for understanding the lives of the women in the US armed forces who died in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. It illustrates how US military women have purposefully, and sometimes without purpose, influenced the debate and execution of policy in the most male-centric arena of foreign policy war-making. Liberal feminism, which is often viewed as the dominant strain of feminism in the United States, is primarily concerned with the issue of individual rights over the securing of the collective good and ensuring that women have access to the same opportunities as men.
