Leading feminist analyst Cynthia Enloe asks why patriarchy is proving to be such a sustainable cultural, institutional and economic system. Decades of feminist campaigning have resulted in real advances - a woman newsreader is no longer unusual; many police departments are equipped with rape kits; more than half of the national legislators in Bolivia and Rwanda are women; a woman candidate won the popular vote in the recent U.S. presidential election. And yet patriarchy continues to thrive. From the institutional acceptance of sexual harassment within major news organizations to the exclusion of Syrian women from international peace negotiations, this book is a fierce and incisive exploration of patriarchal culture and how we are unwittingly sustaining patriarchy - for example, by falling into the celebrity trap, imagining that tourism is without consequence or casually using ungendered concepts (e.g. 'child marriages') to make sense of the world. With grace and energy, and in the most accessible and inviting prose, Cynthia Enloe reflects on examples from her own life and the experiences of women from around the world, to show that only by asking 'where are the women?' and making women's experiences visible, can we engage effectively in civic life and make sense of today's global politics.
Author Biography:
Cynthia Enloe is Research Professor in the Department of International Development, Community, and Environment, with affiliations with Women’s and Gender Studies and Political Science, all at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Her feminist teaching and research have explored the interplay of gendered politics in the national and international arenas, with special attention to how women’s labor is made cheap in globalized factories and how women’s emotional and physical labor has been used to support many governments’ war-waging policies—and how diverse women have tried to resist both of those efforts. Racial, class, ethnic and national identity dynamics, as well as ideas about femininities and masculinities, are common threads throughout her studies.
Her career has included Fulbrights in Malaysia and Guyana, guest professorships in Japan, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as lectures in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Germany, Portugal, Chile, Vietnam, Korea, Colombia, Bosnia, Turkey, and at universities around the U.S. Her writings have been translated into Spanish, Turkish, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, Icelandic and German. She has published in Ms. Magazine and The Village Voice, and appeared on National Public Radio, Al Jazeera, C-Span and the BBC.
Cynthia Enloe’s most recent book is The Big Push: Exposing and Challenging the Persistence of Patriarchy, published by Myriad in October 2017. She is the author of many others besides, including Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives (2000), The Curious Feminist (2004) and Nimo’s War, Emma’s War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War, (2010), The Real State of America: Mapping the Myths and Truths about the United States (co-authored with Joni Seager) (2011, revised 2014). Seriously! Investigating Crashes and Crises as if Women Mattered appeared in 2013. Enloe’s thoroughly updated and revised 2nd edition of Bananas, Beaches and Bases was published by University of California Press, 2014. Her new, updated edition of Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link was published in 2016.
She has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by Union College (2005), the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (2009), Connecticut College (2010), the University of Lund, Sweden (2012), Clark University (2014) and the University of Iceland (2020).
Cynthia Enloe was awarded the International Studies Association’s Susan Strange Award in 2007, in recognition of ‘a person whose singular intellect, assertiveness, and insight most challenge conventional wisdom and organizational complacency in the international studies community during the previous year.’ In 2008, she was awarded the Susan B. Northcutt Award, presented annually by the Women’s Caucus for International Studies, of the International Studies Association, to recognize ‘a person who actively works toward recruiting and advancing women and other minorities in the profession, and whose spirit is inclusive, generous and conscientious.’ She has been awarded Clark University’s Outstanding Teacher Award three times.
In 2010, Cynthia Enloe was awarded the Peace and Justice Studies Association’s Howard Zinn Lifetime Achievement Award. The American Council of Learned Societies awarded Cynthia its Charles Haskins Award in 2016.
Cynthia currently serves on the editorial advisory boards of International Feminist Journal of Politics, Security Dialogue, Women, Politics and Policy, International Political Sociology, Critical Military Studies, and Politics and Gender. She is a member of WILPF’s International Academic Network.