The author discusses the difference that feminist scholarship can make
to the discipline of international relations, especially by applying
the insights relating to the socially constructed nature of gender tha
t have come out of much feminist writing of recent decades. Looking in
turn at the issues of gender, human rights, and the military and war,
she argues that deeply entrenched beliefs and assumptions about what
constitutes 'masculinity' and 'femininity' need to be examined in the
light of these insights, rather than taken as 'givens', in order to wo
rk towards an understanding of the important role played by beliefs an
d myths about gender in creating, maintaining and ending wars.