Feminism: Gender’s Role in Security and Stability

“Feminist curiosity” as coined by feminist Cynthia Enloe is the theme of this paper. Feminist curiosity is a critical tool in today’s political world. One cannot explain why international relations work the way they do without taking women’s lives seriously. Taking women’s experiences seriously is imperative in developing reliable explanations and solutions to security and stability issues during and post conflict. This paper explores the development of feminism and applies it to recent and historic events. It further argues the importance of using gender analysis in examining world politics and the importance of incorporating women’s experiences and voice in the decision-making process of political and military policies, both foreign and domestic.