POLS2603 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: International Relations Theory, Androcentrism
Lecture 3 - What is feminism?
Gender as structure
background condition for individual actions
provides channels that both enable action and constrain it
Gender as a norm
idea that regulates how we act
ideal constructions of how to be a woman/man
Norms are symbolic
ideas that are embodied by individuals - taken up + lived
our behaviour reproduces them and keeps them in circulation
Gender as relation
not just about how individuals act
exists in relation to other people + their actions
Why study gender?
it is not visible in scholarship unless we make it visible
Must acknowledge that all knowledge is situated
Feminist approaches to studying gender
What is feminism?
oxford english dictionary definition
the act of defining feminism is a political act
fem is a body of thought in response to a situation it finds problematic
it is defensive, therefore its definition can change as the problem changes
it is a contextual definition
it is not just a body of knowledge, it is political
Features of feminist approaches to knowing:
Critical
Fem theory does not just try to understand the world, but is committed to changing
the world
Reflexive
fem scholarship reflects on how it comes to know what it claims and should make
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