2: Disrupting gender in feminist security narratives

Overview & Synopsis

The question “where are the women?” has long guided feminist scholarship, including in Feminist Security Studies. In this chapter, we complicate the question by exploring the notion of woman through adjacent literatures that point out the always contextual nature of womanhood and gender more generally. Drawing on postcolonial, intersectional, and indigenous feminisms, we probe how feminist security narratives can become less narrow and live up to their feminist potential. It is our contention that through a wider discussion of womanhood and gender more generally, we will be able to construct more complete, less exclusionary narratives of security. Our discussion has both theoretical and methodological implications, but also direct relevance for feminist policymaking.