Modern World Politics and Gender

Inequalities of electoral participation threaten the democratic process's integrity, representation, and deliberation. Women traditionally voted in democracies around the world insignificantly relative to men following enfranchisement. Women's voting enrollment has recently improved, but they also participate in politics at a lower rate (Baylis et al. 2017, p. 6). Gender distinctions persist in the world's modern democracies. Gender disparities are more pronounced in the orientations and behaviors that contribute to active involvement in electoral activities. The gender equality within political discussions and interests has the capability to broaden the scope of the policy demands and modify the nature of the democratic process. This paper discusses the manner in which gender shapes the current world politics.
Sex and Gender
Sex signifies the females and males relying on the biological features, for instance, hormones, chromosomes and certain physical features, while gender is a social construct that comprises of social role, behavior, identity and position. Gender is a socially learned conduct and anticipations that differentiates between femininity and masculinity (Sturgeon 2016, p.8).
Gender and World Politics
After the enfranchisement, women were more politically conservative in comparison to men in their party attachment, ideology, and vote choice in most democracies. The higher levels of religiosity among women encouraged robust ties to the conservative and religious parties. Moreover, fewer women were involved in the paid labor force, and therefore, they were less probable to join the trade unions that were the organizations which historically linked the workforces to the leftist parties. The conventional gap ended over time, and the groups of women and men changed their behavior with regard to voting that yielded fresh distinctions. Currently, the gender differences that determine the electoral conduct have been realigning, with females shifting toward the left across the highly developed industrial societies (Tickner 2001, p. 134).
Women play significant roles in the campaigning and organizing the support for their parties, however, they infrequently take up the positions of decision making. The processes of recruitment and nomination within the political parties have a tendency to be vigorous and established by the men. The processes are associated with threats of violence, public spats and the type of violence that intimidates women. There are certain factors that augment the ability of women to be politically competitive with the males in the national and world politics. These factors include access to finance, reduced rates of fertility, augmented urbanization, greater mobility, labor force participation, capability to network extensively through the utilisation of techniques of information technology, and the attitudinal changes in the perceptions concerning the most appropriate role for the females in both global and national politics (Zalewski 2008, p. 153).
Most world political campaigns consider gender differences to guarantee that it is not decisive in defeat or victory. The female and male candidates frequently utilize family distinctly or with distinct intentions in the campaign messages and images. The female candidates get additional scrutiny over the physical appearance of the family, thus the campaign professionals put them into consideration in the political issues (Baylis et al. 2017, p. 14). With both the parties comprehending the significance of the female voters, the female candidates often look of techniques to magnify their perceived advantages with the voters whereas the male candidates that are facing the female competitors frequently look for techniques to compensate for what they perceive to be their disadvantage with the female voters. The female candidates capitalize on the gender-centered advantages through demonstrating the traits of authenticity, honesty, and the ability to bring the political transformation within the society.
Gender and Security
The establishment of long-lasting peace and security necessitates the participation of women. The number of women who participates in the world peace settlements still remains margins. Although numerous enhancements have been made, women remain underrepresented in the public offices, peacekeeping missions, and at the negotiating table (Kay 2015, p. 9). The perspectives and needs of the women are frequently ignored in the post-conflict demobilization, disarmament, and reintegration in addition to rehabilitation of justice and the rule of law as well as in the security sector reform. Numerous conflicts across the world have been associated with extensive sexual and gender-centered violence that frequently remains incessant in the outcomes of the war and characteristically together with the impunity for perpetrators.
The constant lack of the physical security and the presence of considerable lawful constraints within the post-conflict societies hinder the integration of women into leadership and economic life. There are a number of appropriate practices for increasing the participation of women in security matters that comprise deployment of the gender balanced peace-keeping units, an entire government strategy to the judicial and security sector reform and additional premeditated solicitation of input of the women population at the societal level on the priorities for the nationwide budgets and worldwide programs (Kay 2015, p. 23). The power of the military with regard to security is being extensively utilized in numerous nations across the world. Nonetheless, it does not guarantee gender equality but instead responsible for the gender inequality in the international relations. The international security needs to have the ability to secure both females and males within the society. The gender inequality puts the security of females and males at risk. In order to gain peace individuals need to guarantee economic balance, justice and remove violence. This requires participation of both women and men.
World Politics, War and Peace
The war is merely a branch of political undertaking. The military events advance and are restricted on political lines that go on through peace and war. Nevertheless, the politics influence on war does not belong to nature of the war. The policies that cause war are similar to the policies that limit and moderate it. Therefore, the politics positions itself over war and adjusts it in order to suit its needs. The war is not a self-directed game that is generated through fixed internal or external constraints but an issue of political choice that mirrors all the array of political intentions which make the wars into extinction (Kay 2015, p. 27). War is dominated by the political object, and the objects' value determines the measure of the sacrifices through which it is to be acquired. The world politics hold together the existing amongst politics and war. Although the war it itself was not a playable alternative owing to the deterrence throughout the Cold War with the end of Soviet Union and rising of more world and regional powers, the worldwide arena started to change into one that is governed by the political will of nation-states.
Government Policies and World Politics
The domestic politics plays a vital role when taking the strategic foreign policy decisions since the threats that are expected or are already implemented are concerned with nationwide security concerns. The government has the mandate to deal with security matters to maintain peace and unity within the country. The foreign policies of a county are greatly influenced by domestic political milieu and economic implications (Carpenter 2002, p. 154). The foreign policy is established and performed in multifaceted global and domestic milieus. The domestic politics greatly influence the foreign policy decisions, and when the policy is not permissible nationally, it is improbable to be successful in the global context. The relationship between political behavior and gender displays that the manner in which the ordinary citizens link to the electoral process is gendered.

Feminist Theories
The fundamental presupposition of the feminist theory of politics is that the females are underprivileged and discriminated in the society and politics (Enloe 2014, p. 11). They feminists believe in the emancipatory knowledge that produces the knowhow that can assist inform the practices to enhance the lives of women. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the feminists asserted that merely the introduction of gender analysis would differentiate effect of the state system and global economy on the women. The gender refers to a system of the social hierarchy wherein the masculine traits are more recognized as compared to the feminine traits.
The international relations feminist theories emphasise on the social relations, specifically, on gender relations instead of anarchy. They observe a global system that is constituted through socially established gender hierarchies that contribute to the gender subordination. The international relations feminists collectively share the interest in gender equality. They have a view that gender is the structure that denotes imbalanced power associations between men and women. Numerous feminists have a post-positivist dedication to looking at the association that exists amongst power and knowhow. They mention that the largest part of knowledge has been generated by the men and also concerns men. The international relations feminists utilized the gender sensitive means to answer questions concerning the reason the women frequently play lesser roles in the world politics (Shepherd 2014, p. 16).
The liberal feminists consider that the equality of women can be attained through removing lawful impediments that disallow women similar chances as men. The liberal feminism considers the inferior position of women in world politics nonetheless remains devoted to identifying the origin of such subordination in a positivist framework. The post-liberal feminists expresses that there is the need to look more profoundly at the disparate gendered structures to comprehend to enable women participate in global politics (Enloe 2014, p. 27). The feminists assert that ignoring gender generates a narrow conception security and does not give a reason for shifting realities in global affairs. Besides, they claim that lack of understanding the gender promotes gender hierarchies which regard the masculine in comparison to the feminine. 
The globalization process has augmented inequality between women and men across the world eventually leading to the feminization of poverty. The augmented inequality focuses on outsourcing and export that mirror the priorities of international financial markets have inconsistently affected the women. The increase in insecurity and inequality is due to the emergence of violent conflicts within the nations having high inequality between women and men. The gender equality within different nations minimises the possibility of the utilization of violence within the intra-state conflicts. Thus, the utilisation of more important approaches with regard to the world politics would considerably contribute to individuals' comprehension of international politics and would possibly lead to the less violent disputes in the future when more focus is put on the minimisation of worldwide inequality along with the gendered dimension (Shepherd 2014, p. 28).
Constructivism and Global Politics
The constructivism approach focuses not merely on the significance of material structures, however in addition to normative dimension that is connected with it and also the significance of the identity formation and demonstration. Therefore, constructivism makes an effort to remedy the disregard of the Marxist on the significance of the agency and its affiliation to the structure in processes of creating and executing decisions associated with world politics and associations amongst states in the period of globalization. This implies that constructivism is along with the more conventional techniques of hypothesizing the global politics, for instance, rationalism and Marxism (Adler 2013, p. 113). The importance of human agency is not removed from a structure that finds out the demonstration of the interests of the actor. Indeed, it advocates for a critical assessment of institutionalized norms that mediates between the agency and structure. It can help in comprehending the current international inequalities that exists amongst the underdeveloped, developing and developed nations. This would be achieved through examining the state of affairs within the world politics and the moral dimensions that support it. The constructivism approach may productively examine and moralize the authority existing between the nations through focusing on the establishment of the normative frameworks that are utilized to guide the execution of particular decisions as regards the global politics.
Gender and Economics
The work is equated with the employment in classic economics. Thus, it obscures the association between capitalist economy and reproductive work. The families are normally perceived exclusively as the consumers of products thus obscure the essential work that takes place within the families and contributes to the society (Zalewski 2008, p. 164). With regard to gender, the work of men and women is composed of income producing undertakings and work that does not produce income in the communities and household. The women who work within the labor markets do so in the situations of segregation and inequality. The conventional employments for the female mirror their socially delegated roles and the jobs are frequently undervalued and less paid. The female receives minimal salaries as compared to men. The discrimination is associated with the other kinds of discrimination that include social class and ethnicity.
The role of women in the productive labor force is increasing with no any essential changes in division of labor within the domestic or reproductive sphere and has led to serious consequences for the women comprising job insecurity, overwork and decrease in their potential to participate wholly in the society with regard to both national and global politics (Haney & Pollard 2014, p. 51). The women primarily play the domestic or reproductive roles while men mainly play productive or public roles. The society has attributed distinct values to the roles. The reproductive roles relate to an organization and the attention to household and family. These roles are not commercial thus less valued and do not have monetary value. On the other hand, the productive roles relate to the political, social and economic aspects and are commercial and exchanged for money thus highly valued in the society.
There has been the feminization of the work force with the share of women in employment creeping up gradually towards the share of men in jobs. The feminization of the place of work connects to Marxist approach in which every individual can sell their power of labor to possess the production means. The employers consider the women labor more appropriate for the fresh service employment implying that the opportunities for females are opening up and at the same time closing for the males. There is also a reduction in full time jobs for the male and increase in the part time jobs for the female (Baylis et al. 2017, p. 35). The composition of gender in the work force has been influenced by a number of developments within the society that include security, political and economical issues. The lasting decrease in employment within the production specifically in the heavy industry has resulted in augmented male unemployment and redundancy, particularly among the younger male individuals. There has been the creation of new jobs in the service sector specifically in the areas that are assigned to the work of women, for instance, catering, retail and clerical work within the sector of finance.
Conclusion
The gender issues are essential in international relations. The concept of gender needs to be applied in a comprehensive way so that it does not discriminate individuals within the society. Feminism is more concerned with social construction of the gender and the manner in which it has generated the perception of the feminine as lesser to the masculine. It makes exertions to make women visible through finding solutions to the gender issues. All individuals need to be encouraged to vote, since voting yields the most equality in gender in the national and global politics.
References
Adler, E., 2013. Constructivism in international relations: sources, contributions, and debates. Handbook of international relations, 2, pp.112-144.
Baylis, J., Owens, P. and Smith, S. eds., 2017. The globalization of world politics: An introduction to international relations. Oxford University Press.
Carpenter, R.C., 2002. Gender theory in world politics: Contributions of a nonfeminist standpoint?. International Studies Review, 4(3), pp.153-165.
Enloe, C., 2014. Bananas, beaches and bases: Making feminist sense of international politics. Univ of California Press.
Haney, L. and Pollard, L. eds., 2014. Families of a new world: gender, politics, and state development in a global context. Routledge.
Kay, S., 2015. Global security in the twenty-first century: the quest for power and the search for peace. Rowman & Littlefield.
Shepherd, L.J. ed., 2014. Gender matters in global politics: a feminist introduction to international relations. Routledge.
Sturgeon, N., 2016. Ecofeminist natures: Race, gender, feminist theory and political action. Routledge.
Tickner, J.A., 2001. Gendering world politics: Issues and approaches in the post-Cold War era. Columbia University Press.
Zalewski, M., Tickner, A., Sylvester, C., Light, M., Jabri, V., Hutchings, K. and Halliday, F., 2008. Roundtable discussion: Reflections on the past, prospects for the future in gender and international relations. Millennium, 37(1), pp.153-179.