How can a gender-aware analysis contribute to our understanding of security?
Author(s)
Advisor
Bilgin, PınarDate
2006Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
This thesis discusses the possible contribution of a gender-aware analysis to
our understanding of security. Within the discipline of International Relations, there
is a great diversity in the range of perspectives on analyzing security. They have
different answers to what is being secured, what is being secured against and who
provides for security. In Security Studies, empirically based positivist perspectives, explicitly or implicitly specify what the referent of their studies is. It can be the
system, state, society, and individuals. On the other hand, in feminist theory, it is all
about rethinking concepts, rethinking models. It may appear that gender can have
little to contribute to the study of security. However, this is not the case. The gender
awareness in the study of security challenges the basic understanding of security. Structures and practices that are taken as given by traditional approaches within a
patriarchal discourse serve only to obscure the inequalities and insecurities. In this
thesis, through adding gender as a category of analysis, it is attempted to illustrate
the gendered constructions of conflict, militarism and militarisation. Without making
invisible visible, our understanding of security can only be partial.