In International Relations "W" Stands for Women in "Why" and "(No) Where"

Abstract

The aim of this article is to shed light on reasons as to why women are marginalized in the field of International Relations, which subsequently answers the question as to where are women in international relations. To answer such question, author will approach International relations from its sub-approach, that is, International Security Studies (ISS) or more specifically Feminist Security Studies. The reason for such selection of approach is because feminists or women in general face gender–specific security problems which are overlooked because of the nature of IR which is a men dominated, hyper-masculine field and precisely because IR and its traditionalist realist approach hold the state as the main referent object of security [1]. The first section will discuss that because the post-cold war era lacked a catalyst event or a metaevent this allowed the widening and deepening of the term security, this in turn presented Feminist scholars an opportunity and space to solidify and present their own approach of international relations to rectify and give answers to gender based problems. It will also discuss the birth of feminist security studies which had its core the objective of exposing the hegemonic masculinity of IR. The second section will discuss the topic rape as a weapon of war, and that it is rarely discussed and neglected by mainstream international relation scholars. Lastly, the last section will discuss how the meta-event 9/11 repositioned the state as the referent object by using a gender-based narrative.