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Gender Politics And The Nation Term Paper

Gender Politics and the Nation The historical development of the nation has impacted the ability of women to participate in contemporary politics by reinforcing gender roles in the public sphere. Traditionally, the exclusion women from the international community was linked to ideas of gender roles and today, these ideas continue to exclude women from international politics.

Traditionally, colonialism was driven by the Enlightenment ideal of using reason to obtain goals, a view that also saw females as irrational and emotional. Enloe notes, "Perhaps international politics has been impervious to feminist ideas precisely because for so many centuries in so many cultures it has been thought of as a typically 'masculine' sphere of life" (4).

Enloe argues that the status of diplomatic wives is tied closely to ideas of women as loyal supporters of their men, who were busy at the business of international relations. This view clearly shows the pervasiveness of ideas of notion of femininity vs. masculinity. As diplomatic wives, women were seen only in light of their gender. Similarly,...

Today, international politics is influenced by these historical social and sexual contracts. Writes Enloe, "so far feminist analysis has had little impact on international politics. Foreign-policy commentators and decision-makers seem particularly confident in dismissing feminist ideas" (3).
These contracts continue to hold sway even though there is evidence that the dichotomy of masculine and feminine is false. Writes Enloe, "there is mounting evidence that they are packages of expectations that have been created through specific decisions by specific people" (3).

Gender ideas persist and can lead to…

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Works Cited

Enloe, Cynthia. 2001. Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics Updated Edition with a New Preface. University of California Press.
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