ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the value of a constructivist approach for studying gender in global politics, that which is meant by womanhood or manhood, that which is demanded from women and men, and the different roles women and men play in contractually defined situations. Feminism is not a monolithic body of thought, and it thrives on disagreements and multiple perspectives, most contemporary feminists agree on one issue: gender is a social construct. Constructivism allows for a specification of gender as a constellation of rules and in the way provides a tool for investigating a social fact which, as many feminists have correctly argued, is both historical and fluid. Women's home-based work affected gender roles in the household by questioning who was the breadwinner. Home-based workers to trace definitions of gender through the mutually supportive rules of households, states, and labor markets, and it shows how feminist activism unfolds as a challenge to instruction, directive, and commitment-rules.
