Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T13:25:10.980Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gender, international relations and the case of the ILO*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Sandra Whitworth
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Much of the work that has been done by feminist International Relations (IR) theorists thus far has been to critique the existing discipline for its obvious inattention to questions of women and gender. It is time now to turn to more substantive work and explore not only the ways in which gender is absent from the study of international relations, but to document also the ways in which gender informs the various institutions and practices of international relations. To this end, feminist analyses of political economy, militarism, state-building, diplomacy and so on have begun to emerge. The present study is part of this project and seeks to develop an account of gender and international organizations and then apply it to an illustrative study of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , October 1994 , pp. 389 - 405
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Scott, Joan Wallach, Gender and the Politics of History (New York, 1988), p. 2Google Scholar.

2 Enloe, Cynthia, Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (London, 1989), p. 4Google Scholar.

3 Jenson, June, ‘Paradigms and Political Discourse: Protective Legislation in France and the USA Before 1914’, Canadian Journal of Political Science, 22, 2 (1989), p. 238CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Jenson, Jane, ‘Gender and Reproduction: Or, Babies and the State’, Studies in Political Economy, 20 (1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 This is a modification of Wendt, Alexander, ‘The Agent-Structure Problem in International Relations Theory’, International Organization, 41, 3 (1987), p. 359CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Cox, Robert W., ‘Social Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond International Relations Theory’, Millennium, 10, 2 (1981), p. 136CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 See Wendt, , ‘The Agent–Structure Problem’, pp. 335–70Google Scholar; Jenson, Jane, ‘Paradigms and Political Discourse’, p. 236Google Scholar; Giddens, Anthony, Central Problems in Social Theory (London, 1979), p. 2CrossRefGoogle Scholar and ch. 2, passim.

7 See for example, Cox, R. W., ‘ILO: Limited Monarch’, in Cox, R. W. and Jacobson, H. K. (eds.), The Anatomy of Influence: Decision Making in International Organization (New Haven, 1974)Google Scholar; Morse, David A., The Origin and Evolution of the ILO and its Role in the World Community (Ithaca, 1969)Google Scholar; Johnston, G. A., The International Labour Organisation: Its Work for Social and Economic Progress (London, 1970)Google Scholar; Shotwell, James T., The Origins of the International Labor Organization, vol. I (New York, 1934)Google Scholar; Alcock, Antony, History of the International Labour Organisation (London, 1971), pp. 5–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Cox, , ‘ILO: Limited Monarchy’, p. 102Google Scholar.

9 Cox, Robert W., ‘Labor and Hegemony’, International Organization, 31, 3 (1977), p. 387CrossRefGoogle Scholar and passim.

10 Alcock, , History of the International Labour Organisation, p. 38Google Scholar.

11 Lubin, Carol Riegelman and Winslow, Anne, Social Justice for Women: The International Labor Organization and Women (Durham, 1990)Google Scholar.

12 Similar analyses have been done on the League of Nations and the European Community. See Stienstra, Deborah, Women's Movements and International Organizations (London, 1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Miller, Carol, ‘Women in International Relations? The Debate in Inter-War Britain’, in Grant, R. and Newland, K. (eds.), Gender and International Relations (Buckingham, 1991)Google Scholar; Hoskyns, Catherine, ‘Gender Issues in International Relations—The Case of the European Community’, Review of International Studies (forthcoming)Google Scholar.

13 Lubin, and Winslow, , Social Justice for Women, p. 30Google Scholar.

14 Alcock, , History of the International Labour Organisation, p. 12Google Scholar.

15 Lubin, and Winslow, , Social Justice for Women, p. 30Google Scholar.

16 Bob Reinalda, ‘Women as Transnational Political Force in Europe’, Paper Prepared for the Inaugural Pan-European Conference of the EPCR Standing Group on International Relations, Heidelberg, Germany, 16–20 September, 1992, p. 7. See also Lubin, and Winslow, , Social Justice for Women, pp. 21–2, 30Google Scholar.

17 Jenson, ‘Gender and Reproduction’; Jenson, ‘Paradigms and Political Discourse’.

18 See Becker, Susan D., The Origins of the Equal Rights Amendment: American Feminism Between the Wars (Westport, Co, 1981), ch. 5Google Scholar and ILO, Special Protective Measures for Women and Equality of Opportunity and Treatment (Geneva, 1989), ch. 2Google Scholar.

19 Reinalda, , ‘Women as Transnational Political Force in Europe’, p. 7Google Scholar.

20 ‘Final Texts of the Labor Section’, in Shotwell, J. T. (ed.), The Origins of the International Labor Organization, pp. 424 and 449Google Scholar.

21 Lubin, and Winslow, , Social Justice for Women, p. 95Google Scholar.

22 Convention No. 4 was revised in 1934 and in 1948 in order to accommodate shift work in some industries, women in high managerial positions and at the request of governments during national emergencies. See ILO, Partial Revision of the Convention (No. 4) Employment of Women During the Night (1919) and Convention (No. 41) Concerning Employment of Women During the Night (revised 1934), International Labour Conference, 31st Session, Report IX, 1948.

23 Lubin, and Winslow, , Social Justice for Women, p. 29Google Scholar.

24 Lubin, and Winslow, , Social Justice for Women, ch. 2Google Scholar.

25 Fuss, Henri, Chief of the Unemployment, Employment and Migration Section, ILO, ‘Unemployment and Employment Among Women’, International Labour Review, 31,4 (1935), p. 465Google Scholar.

26 ‘Maternity Protection: A Social Responsibility (ILO)’, Women at Work (1984), No. 2, pp. 1–2Google Scholar; see also ‘ILO Survey on Working Mothers’, Women at Work (1985), p. 31Google Scholar.

27 Lubin, and Winslow, , Social Justice for Women, p. 83Google Scholar; ILO, Standards and Policy Statements of Special Interest to Women Workers, pp. 68–71, 83–6Google Scholar; ‘Maternity Protection: A Social Responsibility’, in ILO, Women at Work (1984), pp. 1–2Google Scholar; ‘Women Workers: International Labour Standards’, in ILO, Women at Work, 1987, pp. 28–33Google Scholar; Robert, Marcel and Parmeggiani, Luigi, ‘Fifty Years of International Collaboration in Occupational Safety and Health’, International Labour Review, 99, 1 (1969), pp. 85–136Google Scholar.

28 Tilly, Louise A. and Scott, Joan W., Women, Work and Family (New York, 1978), p. 57Google Scholar; Brookes, Barbara, ‘Women and Reproduction, 1860–1939’, in Lewis, Jane (ed.), Labour and Love: Women's Experience of Home and Family, 1850–1914 (Oxford, 1986), pp. 149, 166Google Scholar.

29 Eisenstein, Zillah, The Female Body and the Law (Berkeley, 1988), pp. 204–6Google Scholar.

30 Wright, Michael J., ‘Reproductive Hazards and “Protective” Discrimination’, Feminist Studies, 5, 2 (1979), p. 303CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Carolyn Bell, ‘Implementing Safety and Health Regulations for Women in the Workplace’, in ibid. p. 296 and Blakeslee, Sandra, ‘Fathers linked to Child Defects’, The Globe and Mail, 1 January, 1991, p. A1Google Scholar.

31 Wright, , ‘Reproductive Hazards and “Protective” Discrimination’, pp. 304–5Google Scholar.

32 Bell, , ‘Implementing Safety and Health Regulations’, p. 297Google Scholar.

33 See Ibid., p. 297 and Petchesky, Rosalind, ‘Workers, Reproductive Hazards and the Politics of Protection: An Introduction’, Feminist Studies, 5, 2 (1979), p. 237CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 For an examination of this problem in the context of Canadian public health and safety legislation, see ‘PPE for Women: Vive la Difference!’ Occupational Health and Safety Canada, 2, 2 (1986), p. 62Google Scholar. See also Robert and Parmeggiani, ‘Fifty years of International Collaboration’; and Parmeggiani, L., ‘State of the Art: Recent Legislation on Workers' Health and Safety’, International Labour Review, 121, 3 (1982), pp. 271–85Google Scholar.

35 Lubin, and Winslow, , Social Justice for Women also make this point, see pp. 48 and 251Google Scholar.

36 Fuss, , ‘Unemployment and Employment among Women’, pp. 463 and 465–9Google Scholar; Lubin, and Winslow, , Social Justice for Women, p. 41Google Scholar.

37 Fuss, , ‘Unemployment and Employment Among Women’, pp. 493–4Google Scholar.

38 Ibid. p. 466.

39 Becker, , The Origins of the Equal Rights Amendment, pp. 8–9, 162–3, 172Google Scholar; Lubin, and Winslow, , Social Justice for Women, p. 39Google Scholar.

40 Becker, , The Origins of the Equal Rights Amendment, pp. 171, 175Google Scholar; League of Nations, Handbook of International Organisations (Geneva, 1938), pp. 269–70Google Scholar; ‘The Open Door International and Maternity Protection’, International Labour Review, 21, 2 (1930), pp. 217–218Google Scholar.

41 Lubin, and Winslow, , Social Justice for Women, p. 45Google Scholar; Becker, , The Origins of the Equal Rights Amendment, pp. 9, 65Google Scholar; Anderson, and Winslow, , Woman at Work, ch. 18Google Scholar.

42 Becker, , The Origins of the Equal Rights Amendment, pp. 176–8Google Scholar.

43 Ibid. pp. 177–8.

44 Milkman, Ruth, Gender at Work: The Dynamics of Job Segregation by Sex During World War II (Chicago, 1987), p. 49Google Scholar.

45 ‘Meeting of Experts from the I.L.O. Committee on Women's Work’, International Labour Review, 54, 3–4 (1946), p. 202Google Scholar; ‘The Apprenticeship of Women and Girls’, International Labour Review, 72, 4 (1965), pp. 283–302Google Scholar.

46 Lubin, and Winslow, , Social Justice for Women, p. 95Google Scholar.

47 ILO, Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers, Report V(1), pp. 3 and 7Google Scholar.

48 ILO, Standards and Policy Statements of Special Interest to Women Workers, pp. 41–4Google Scholar; ILO, Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value, International Labour Conference, Thirty-Third Session, Reports V(l), V(2) Geneva 1950, and Thirty-Fourth Session, Report VII(2) Geneva 1951Google Scholar; ‘ILO Instrument on Equality of Remuneration’, Women at Work (1984), p. 6Google Scholar; ‘Women's Wages’, International Labour Review, 81, 2 (1960), pp. 95–109Google Scholar; Mainwaring, , A Canadian View, p. 126Google Scholar.

49 ‘Progress in Equal Pay Linked to General Status of Women and Men in Society’, Women at Work (1986), p. 14Google Scholar; ‘Unequal Pay, Wherein Lies the Problem’, Women at Work (1982), p. 1Google Scholar; ‘Women Workers: International Labour Standards’, Women at Work (1987), p. 29Google Scholar; ILO, Equal Opportunities and Equal Treatment for Men and Women in Employment, International Labour Conference, 71st Session, Report VII (1985); ILO, Equal Remuneration: General Survey of the Reports on the Equal Remuneration Convention (No. 100) and Recommendation (No. 90), 1951, Report III (Part 4B), International Labour Conference, 72nd Session, 1986 (Geneva: ILO, 1986), chs. 4 and 5.

50 ILO, Standards and Policy Statements of Special Interest to Women Workers, pp. 5–9Google Scholar.

51 Ibid. p. 9.

52 ‘The Right to Work: Is it Equal for Women?’ Women and Work (1983), p. 1Google Scholar; ILO, Standards and Statements of Special Interest to Women Workers, p. 49Google Scholar. See also ‘The Apprenticeship of Women and Girls’, International Labour Review, 72, 4 (1965), pp. 283–302Google Scholar.

53 Lubin, and Winslow, , Social Justice for Women, pp. 100–1Google Scholar.

54 ILO, Standards and Policy Statements of Special Interest to Women Workers, pp. 75–9Google Scholar. ‘Women with Family Responsibilities Recommendation, 1965 (No. 123): an ILO Survey’, Women at Work (1979), p. 33Google Scholar.

55 Lubin, and Winslow, , Social Justice for Women, p. 105Google Scholar.

56 Séguret, M.-C., ‘Child-care Services for Working Parents’, International Labour Review, 120, 6 (1981), pp. 711Google Scholar.

57 Reinalda, , ‘Women as Transnational Political Force in Europe’, p. 8Google Scholar.

58 ‘Official Documents’, Women at Work 1977), p. 26Google Scholar; ‘ILC Will Discuss Women Workers' Questions in 1985’, Women at Work (1984), p. 4.Google Scholar

59 ‘Primary Study on Protective Measures’, Women at Work (1977), p. 17Google Scholar.

60 ‘Women Workers and the New International Economic Order’, Women at Work (1981), p. 1Google Scholar.

61 ‘ILO Activities: Report on the Employment of Women with Family Responsibilities’, Women at Work (1978), p. 17Google Scholar.

62 ILO, Equal Opportunities and Equal Treatment for Men and Women Workers: Workers With Family Responsibilities, International Labour Conference, 66th Session, 1980, Report VI (1) and Report VI (2). See also Seguret, , ‘Child Care Services for Working Parents’, p. 711Google Scholar; ‘Recommendation Concerning Equal Opportunities and Equal Treatment for Men and Women Workers: Workers with Family Responsibilities’, Women at Work (1982), pp. 41–4Google Scholar; ‘The ILO on Family Responsibilities’, Women at Work (1985), p. 32Google Scholar; Lubin, and Winslow, , Social Justice for Women, p. 105Google Scholar.

63 Ahooja-Patel, Krishna, ‘Work and Family: The New ILO Norms’, in ILO, Women at Work (1981), p. 1Google Scholar.

64 Reinalda, , ‘Women as Transnational Political Force in Europe’, p. 10Google Scholar.

65 ‘Future Trends and Perspectives for ILO Action on Women Workers’, Women at Work (1987), pp. 48–51Google Scholar; ‘ILO Activities for the 1988–89 Biennium’, Women at Work (1987), pp. 51–2Google Scholar; Lubin, and Winslow, , Social Justice for Women, p. 118Google Scholar.

66 ‘The ILO Chooses an Interdepartmental Approach’, World of Work, No. 2 (1993), p. 3Google Scholar.

67 Gait, Virginia, ‘Unions Urged to Promote Women’ ‘The Globe and Mail, 8 February (1993), p. A6Google Scholar.

68 Lotherington, Ann Therese and Flemman, Anne Britt, ‘Negotiating Gender: The Case of the International Labour Organization”, in Stolen, Kristi Anne and Vaa, Mariken (eds.), Gender and Change in Developing Countries (Norway, 1991), pp. 278, 295–6 and passimGoogle Scholar.

69 , Enloe, Bananas, Beaches and Bases, p. 3Google Scholar.