Gender and international relations : an introduction

Until relativelyrecently, little had been written about gender issues in internationalrelations despite the increased importance of the study of gender inother areas of the social sciences. Gender and International Relationsfills that gap, providing a clear and accessible guide to the study ofgender issues, feminist theories, and international relations. Steansillustrates how gender is central to nationalisms and politicalidentity, the state, citizenship and conceptions of political community,security, and global political economy and development. Drawing onfeminist scholarship from across the social sciences, she demonstratesthe uses of feminism as critique. She also introduces readers tocontemporary theoretical debates in international relations usingconcrete concerns and easily understandable issues to ground thediscussion.Thebook does not construct a single feminist theory of internationalrelations nor does it advance a particular perspective of how gender canbest be understood in an international or global context. Rather, thebook argues that feminist theories have collectively produced insightscrucial to the study of international relations and that these insightscan be used to challenge conventional approaches to the discipline.