Gender and International Relations: An Introduction

"Jill Steans has written an excellent introductory study of feminist contributions to international relations theory-challenging in approach, and comprehensive in range." -Fred Halliday, London School of Economics and Political Science "Gender and International Relations provides a wonderfully lucid and insightful overview of the rapidly growing body of feminist international relations scholarship. The author not only sensitizes the reader to differences among feminist approaches, but also clearly stakes out feminist international relations' place within the so-called Third Debate. In addition to providing a critique of the more traditional international relations concerns like the state, nation(alism), and security, the text addresses questions of development and global political economy as well." -Marianne Marchand, University of Amsterdam "This is an exceptionally well-written and accessible introduction to the relationship between gender and international relations. Jill Steans has produced a much-needed guide to one of the most important areas of contemporary international relations theory and practice. This will surely become a standard introductory text for courses on gender and international relations." -Steve Smith, University of Wales Until relatively recently, little had been written about gender issues in international relations despite the increased importance of the study of gender in other areas of the social sciences. Gender and International Relations fills that gap, providing a clear and accessible guide to the study of gender issues, feminist theories, and international relations. In the book, Jill Steans illustrates how gender is central to nationalisms and political identity, the state, citizenship and conceptions of political community, security, and global political economy and development. Drawing on feminist scholarship from across the social sciences, she demonstrates the uses of feminism as critique. She also introduces readers to contemporary theoretical debates in international relations using concrete concerns and easily understandable issues to ground the discussion. The book does not construct a single feminist theory of international relations nor does it advance a particular perspective of how gender can best be understood in an international or global context. Rather, the book argues that feminist theories have collectively produced insights crucial to the study of international relations and that these insights can be used to challenge conventional approaches to the discipline. Jill Steans is a lecturer in international relations at Keele University.