No Place for Feminism in IR

In the reading for this week by Cynthia Enloe, I was impressed at the level of thought she had given to the subject of women in powerful or subordinate roles. She analyzed the role of women in advertising, sexual abuse situations, and the Third World, and each time she took it from a different angle than I was expecting. But there's one huge aspect that is missing from her argument: how exactly are women discriminated against in International Relations?

I completely reject her argument that women in powerful positions exhibit masculine traits, because her definition of "masculine" only mirrors what has been done for many centuries. Therefore, by her thinking, a woman who maintains the status quo while in power (even if that is what is best for her nation) is succumbing to the pressures of the office and acting like men before her.

Another objection I have is that there are examples of female heads of state who have gone to extreme measures to keep their power and did not feel pressure to step down or buckle to a male-dominated society. Indira Ghandi was India's first (and to date, only) female prime minister; her reign did not keep the "status quo" at all in India. She came from an extremely nationalistic and political family, and her rise to power was thought to be a signal for women the world over that doors at the top were opening. Did she succumb to pressure to maintain the status quo? Hardly. She is best known for her left-wing economic systems, Operation Blue Star against Sikh militants (eventually causing her death by assassination), and her declaration of a state of emergency in 1975 so that she could maintain power when it seemed that she was going to be removed from office after it was found that she had cheated to win an election. She actually caused such an uprising in her refusal to resign that she created riots, which she used to declare a state of emergency and keep power. Does this sound like a woman who is confined by society's definition of what a woman should be?

I don't buy Enloe's claim that woman don't have a place in world politics. Elizabeth I of England (assuming the far-flung speculation that she was a man is wrong), Golda Meir, and Margaret Thatcher played instrumental roles in their nations' histories. Eleanor Roosevelt and Eva Peron did not hold political office, yet still had enormous impacts on their states as First Ladies.