Feminist political geography and geopolitics

Abstract

This chapter examines feminist influences on political geography, geopolitics, war, and conflicts. It begins with a synopsis of gender and geopolitics, which details how the study of gender has been incorporated into political geographic analyses. The chapter provides an overview of how gender roles and relations shape, and are shaped by, governments and national ideologies. Feminist geographers began by incorporating women into the study of political geography and geopolitics because they had been absent from these inquires. The inclusion of women transitioned into research on gender roles, norms, relations, and ideologies as they intersected politically with other social categories such as race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality. By studying micro-scale politics, such as communities, homes, and bodies, feminist geographers effectively identify the interrelationship between the personal and the geopolitical. Examining this interrelationship involves analyzing the political aspects of daily life and intimacy, such as biological and social reproduction, and the impacts of geopolitical conflicts on intersectional gender identities and everyday life.