‘Feminist Perspectives on Militarism and War: Critiques, Contradictions and Collusions’, in R. Baksh and W. Harcourt (eds.) Oxford Handbook of Transnational Feminist Movements: Knowledge, Power and Social Change (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015) pp. 632-650. (original) (raw)

This chapter identifies and interrogates the gendered underpinnings of militarism. In doing so, it examines the contributions of feminist scholars and activists to our understanding of militarism and gender. The chapter examines concepts of peace, war, and security as components of militarism, uncovers the assumptions about gender (and race) that shape dominant perceptions of war and militarism, and examines how representations and narratives based on these assumptions have material effects. In particular, the chapter uncovers the ways gender operates as a hierarchical configuration of various expressions and performances of masculinity and femininity and how this function of gender shapes ideas of war, peace, and (in)security. Finally, the chapter illustrates how the understanding of militarism as gendered is central to the ways military conflicts have been enabled, justified, and played out, most recently in the War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq.