Liberal Feminist Analysis

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The concept of human security intends to give an alternative perspective of security from focusing on the sovereignty of territorial states to fixating the object towards individuals. It is about security for people, with the acknowledgement that people face a wide spread of threats and concerns which military forces cannot combat. Human security in general is defined in seven areas, which are economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security and political security. Examples of dangers include poverty, disease, climate change, violation of human rights and armed conflict (Acharya, 2017). Placing a gender lens to this issue, feminists' take on human security narrows it down to security …show more content…
This essay will analyse several threats to human security faced by women, supported with explanations from different strands of feminism.

Liberal feminists believe that gender serves as an empirical variable to explain inequalities in social, economic and political spheres. In relation to human security, they believe the incidences of war and violence are caused by gender inequality (Acharya, 2017). Gender inequality is differences in gender that are constructed by society, reflected in practices and law, and have a significant impact on security policy within and between states (Valerie M. Hudson, 2008/09). Male-dominated hierarchies in political sphere led to the developments of policy, law and decision-making that favoured men's interests, which a lot of times marginalized women with their concerns not put forth and central to discussion. A survey by Inter-Parliamentary Union with parliamentarians from 110 countries shows that 90 per cent of them 'agreed' or 'strongly agreed' that men and women have different political priorities. Women …show more content…
Poststructural feminists resonate with this view as they believe that international politics gendered states through gender performativity, which Judith Butler explains as part of the production of identity within highly regulated circumstances, requiring constant reification through actions (Acharya, 2017). The gendering of states can be observed as states reify themselves through performances of security that would establish them as masculine protectors. It is worth noting the range of masculinities present and only a particular type of masculinity that is more valued than the others is considered as the hegemony. The more states are able to align themselves with the exemplar hegemonic masculinity, the more they will improve their position and boost their reputation (Wadley, 2010). However, this takes place at the expense of women and other genders as they are marginalised. For example, the belief that men are protectors of women contributes to the masculinisation of militaries where soldiers must be male and women are excluded because they are not as physically capable as men (Acharya, 2017). The marginalisation of the LGBTQ+ community is also evident in President Trump's administration, in which they consider "individuals with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria ..... presents
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