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"Momentous changes in the relation between women and the state have advanced women's status around the globe. Women were barred from public affairs a century ago, yet almost every state now recognizes equal voting rights and exhibits a national policy bureau for the advancement of women. Sex quotas for national legislatures are increasingly common. Ann Towns explains these changes by providing a novel account of how norms work in international society. She argues that norms don't just provide standards for states, they rank them, providing comparative judgments which place states in hierarchical social orders. This focus on the link between norms and ranking hierarchies helps better account for how a new policy, such as equality for women in public life, is spread around the world. Women and States thus offers a new account of the relationship between women and the state, and of the influence of norms in international politics"--Provided by publisher

Momentous changes in the relation between women and the state have advanced women's status around the globe. Women were barred from public affairs a century ago, yet almost every state now recognizes equal voting rights and exhibits a national policy bureau for the advancement of women. Sex quotas for national legislatures are increasingly common. Ann E. Towns explains these changes by providing a novel account of how norms work in international society. She argues that norms don't just provide standards for states, they rank them, providing comparative judgments which place states in hierarchical social orders. This focus on the link between norms and ranking hierarchies helps to account better for how a new policy, such as equality for women in public life, is spread around the world. Women and States thus offers a new view of the relationship between women and the state, and of the influence of norms in international politics

This article examines the gendered appearance management ambassadors do to properly represent states. Drawing on feminist sociologist theorizations of labor, and attentive to intersections with sexuality, class, and Western standards, the study shows the unequal extraction of time and effort from men and women as they manage their appearance in diplomacy. Theoretically, I argue that the gendered management of dress, hair, and adornments are better conceived of as labor than as habitus or capital. Empirically, the study focuses on appearance management among ambassadors posted to Washington D.C. 2018–2020. Relying on a wealth of data—an original time survey, ambassador interviews, and observations—the study makes three empirical claims about the diplomatic embodiment of states: (a) diplomatic appearance standards are largely gender binary, with male uniformity and female variation; (b) more time and effort is demanded from female than male ambassadors; and (c) diplomatic appearance standards demand gender labor that is inextricably linked with the management of sexuality, upper class conventions, and Western physical appearance norms for representing states. In short, individuals presenting as men or women (although apparently not nonbinary) may now represent states as ambassadors, but more labor is extracted from women in doing so.

The aim of this article is to examine whether and how diplomacy may be gendered, symbolically and rhetorically, using US representations of diplomacy as a case. Prior scholarship on gender and contemporary diplomacy is sparse but has shown that the symbolic figure of 'the diplomat' has come to overlap tightly with 'man' and be associated with traits often attributed to masculinity. Inspired by queer international relations methods, relying on the concept of 'figuration' and focused on US news media and biographies of diplomats from the past decade, this article uncovers and examines a palette of feminised figurations also at play in US representations of diplomacy, including the diplomat as 'the "soft" non-fighter', 'the relationship builder', 'the gossip', 'the cookie-pusher', and 'the fancy Frenchman'. These feminised figurations alternate between configuring the diplomat as a woman and – more commonly – a (feminised) man. The analysis complicates rather than displaces existing claims, highlighting the importance of attention to slippages and challenges to dominant masculinised subject positions.

This article explores some ways in which the condition of women has been articulated as a standard of civilisation, focusing on articulations by a range of European and non-European political thinkers and political actors in the 19th century and the present, two important periods marked by intense discussions of the status of women and civilisation. In short, the status of women is used by a broad range of actors to draw up civilisational boundaries and to mobilise for action. The standard also functions as an arena of contestation in which alternative visions of a good society are debated. However, whereas the alleged link between sexual equality and "the West" was highly disputed in the 19th century, this claim is much less contested today. The article ends with a discussion of the problematic implications of using the status of women as a standard of civilisation for feminisms around the world.

AbstractThis article aims to rethink the operation of norms in international policy diffusion. Norms do not simply standardize state behaviors, as is conventionally argued; norms also draw on and set up hierarchical social orders among states. Through a conceptual rethinking we gain a better understanding of where—among which states—new policies may first emerge: social hierarchies create incentives for new policies to develop at the margins of international society so that policies may diffuse "from below." We also get a better grasp of how policy advocates frame the appropriateness or benefits of a new state practice: they must frame policy demands in terms of the international standing and rank of the targeted state. This article's empirical aspiration is to use these insights to help account for the international policy diffusion of legal sex quotas, a policy to increase the level of female legislators that developed first among "developing" states rather than among the so-called core of international society. By pointing to the link between norms and social hierarchy, the article helps account for policy diffusion "from below."

Intro -- Contents -- List of Contributors -- List of Figures -- 1 Introduction -- References -- 2 Disparities and Diversification: Feminists in Europe Study War and/or Militaries -- Introduction -- Vital Caveats: 'IR Scholarship,' 'On War and Militaries,' 'Within Europe'? -- Militaries -- Militarism and Militarization -- Military Masculinities -- Fighting Women -- Military Families -- War -- Everyday War -- Counterinsurgency -- Conflict-Related Sexual Violence -- Concluding Remarks -- References -- 3 Feminist Security Studies in Europe: Beyond Western Academics' Club -- Introduction -- What, Where, and Who Is Feminist Security Studies? -- What is Missing? -- European Feminist Security Studies: Theories, Methodologies, Issues -- Issues and Silences -- Theories and Methods -- Concluding Thoughts -- References -- 4 Feminist Peace Research in Europe: A Snapshot -- Introduction -- Feminist Engagements with/for Peace -- A Mapping of Feminist Peace Research in Europe -- Centers of Excellence and the Production of Feminist Peace Research -- Leveraging the WPS Agenda in Peacebuilding: Negotiations, Sexual Violence, and Hybridity -- Conclusion -- References -- 5 Feminist Scholarship in Europe on the Politics of International Migration -- Introduction -- Critical Feminist Interventions in Migration Studies -- Border (In)securities and Sovereignty -- Conflict and Displacement: Determining Inclusive Refugeehood -- The Politics of Intimacy and Belonging -- Global Relations of Labor and Care -- Conclusion -- References -- 6 Feminist International Political Economy in Europe -- Introduction -- Capitalism and Neoliberalism: Connecting Discourses, Policies, and Everyday Implications -- Analyzing International Development Discourses and Organizations -- Reflexive Exercises on the Governance of Neoliberalism and Development and Feminists.

The aim of this open access book is to take stock of, critically engage, and celebrate feminist IR scholarship produced in Europe. Organized thematically, the volume highlights a wealth of excellent scholarship, while also focusing on the politics of location and the international political economy of feminist knowledge production. Who are some of the central feminist scholars located in Europe? How might the concentration of these scholars in Northern Europe and the UK shape the contents of their scholarship? What have some of the main contributions been, in the study of the following themes: security; war and military; peace; migration; international political economy and development; foreign policy; diplomacy; and global governance and international organizations? The volume offers both an intellectual history and a sociology of feminist IR scholarship in Europe. It showcases the vitality and breadth of feminist IR traditions, while simultaneously calling attention to their partial nature, exclusions and silences.