The representation of women in international organisms: a study on the protagonism of women in Angela Merkel and Dilma Rousseff foreign policy projects

Abstract

The sociological logic of the study of international relations is based on the recognition of asymmetrical power relations, based on their performance, as realism and neorealism arise from there, and this tradition coincides with the development of views in the study of gender and feminism. , where the epistemological principle is similarly asymmetrical relationships between men and women in their social, cultural, economic, political, etc. roles. Indeed, feminist approaches to International Relations have introduced gender as an essential tool for analyzing interactions between states in the international framework. However, despite these efforts to build a better International Relations Theory, feminist analysis has had little impact on international politics. The objective of this work is to analyze the role of women in international organizations from the agendas of female representation in the foreign policy projects of Angela Merkel and Dilma Rousseff. The analysis shows that feminist research has demonstrated the value of taking women's experiences and contributions seriously and used this as a basis to demonstrate how IR builds on and perpetuates gendered ideas about who does what, who experiences what - and why - in global politics. Furthermore, there is also recognition that women are important agents in political, economic and social processes. Despite its designation, feminism does more than focus on women, or what are considered women's issues, by highlighting inequality and power relations, feminism reveals the power of gender and what it does in global politics. Concerned with the subordination of women to men, gender inequality and the construction of gender identities, feminism challenged a homogeneous concept of 'women' in IR and exposed gender logics as powerful organizational structures. It is concluded that transcending this debate that we have exposed is more than a political academic in nature, it is the first step to propose a relationship between the two disciplines that allows us to give a new meaning to the analysis of the international situation, and for that, it is necessary leaving behind the theoretical analytical debates, and moving on to selecting, designing or adapting practical methodologies that can be formalized and standardized to achieve the goal of the gradation.