Women in International Relations - Einzelansicht

With the German adoption of a feminist foreign policy and feminist development cooperation, the demands of feminist activists and scholars have finally been heard. For too long, women have been missing in all spheres of International Relations (IR).

Therefore, this course explores the role of women in different fields of international relations. Throughout the seminar, students will gain in-depth knowledge on:  

• the multiple feminist perspectives on and to IR,
• the lacking representation of women in IR,
• the concept of Feminist Foreign Policy with an emphasis on feminist security studies and the UN Agenda 1325 (Women, Peace and Security),
• the role of women in international organizations, the human rights regime, and its transnational counter-movement,
• the concept of Feminist Development Cooperation with an emphasis on feminist food policy.

Course goals: 

The goals of the course are to

• identify key developments and competing strands within feminist IR scholarship;
• understand feminist critiques of the exclusions of women and gender in world politics and in mainstream IR;
• understand the key feminist contributions to IR/global governance/foreign policy;
• assess the strengths and weaknesses of these contributions;
• discuss current issues of representation and gendered institutions in IR/global governance/foreign policy.

The language of instruction is English. 

Students must be enrolled in a Master's programme to participate. 

The passcode for the moodle site will be sent on April 17th. 

Active and regular participation (not graded):

Students are expected to prepare the required reading and participate actively in class. This includes two types of group activities/presentations

1) Small groups of up to 5 students prepare input for session 3.

2) Small groups (2-3 students) are asked to prepare an input (15 min) and lead a discussion in class (15-30 min) for one session (session 4-12). This may include the presentation of new data, alternative cases, alternative standpoints or perspectives, which could then be compared to the findings or arguments of the assigned class reading. Another option could be to develop and present policy implications and/or further research implications, which could also guide one or several potential term papers. Other ideas are welcome!

 Please make sure not to miss more than two sessions.

Summative assignment (graded), required for 6 ECTS (or depending on your programme):

Paper Proposal (1 page), due date: 15/07/2023

Term paper (20-25 pages), due date: 30/09/2023