School of International Relations

Cover Sheet for Summatively Assessed Work

(For 1st and 2nd Year Only)

Emily Friis-Hansen
Student Name: ____________________________________________________

150006737
Matriculation No: __________________________________________________

Module Code: IR2006

_____________________________________________________

Issues in International Relations

Module Title: ______________________________________________________

Dayyab Gillani
Module Tutor: _____________________________________________________

Use feminist IR theory to analyse Brexit.

Assignment Title: ___________________________________________________

2088
Word Count: ______________________________________________________
(including headings and footnotes/endnotes, but excluding bibliography)

Due date for assignment: April 3, 2017

_____________________________________________

April 3, 2017
Date assignment submitted: __________________________________________

Declaration:
In submitting this work and completing this form, you confirm that you have read and
understood the University’s policies and regulations concerning assessment and academic
misconduct.
 Use feminist IR theory to analyse Brexit. !1

When the UK Prime Minister Theresa May uttered the famous words “Brexit means Brexit,”

she couldn’t have been closer to the truth.1 Brexit – a scandal of immense geopolitical consequences

to some, a necessary and righteous act of protection to others – has left even those at the heart of the

matter unsure at the ramifications of such an unprecedented event in the international community.

In the shadow of a series of global recessions and a refugee crisis with no end in sight; an age where

terrorism has become the norm, and the shuttering of borders seems a desperate bid for security,

Brexit has been the watershed moment of defining the international atmosphere of uncertainty and

distrust. While the political ripples from Brexit will spread far and wide into uncharted territories,

the motivations for leaving the European Union are starting to show themselves in hindsight.

Proponents of neoliberal economics cry foul, postcolonial theorists angrily point to race relations,

and cosmopolitans mourn the swift reversion of humanitarian goals. Theories aside, the United

Kingdom’s rejection of EU integration suggests that the move away from neoliberal values of

cooperation, globalisation, and economic freedom towards populism defined by austerity and

increased securitisation has already begun. Using critical feminism as a chosen framework for

understanding this shift of international norms, this paper will examine the universal ‘feminisation’

of globalisation and masculine posturing, the hierarchy of ‘high’ versus ‘low’ politics within

international relations, and the politics of representation within the UK to analyse Brexit from a

gendered lens.

To understand why Brexit was given an opportunity to happen is to understand the

underlying international norms and structures as “rather than being epiphenomenal, scandals are

key to our understanding of how political-economic order is sustained, restored and/or reinvented.”

1Mark Mardell. "What Does 'Brexit Means Brexit' Mean?" BBC News. BBC, 14 July 2016. Web. 02 Apr.
2017.
 Use feminist IR theory to analyse Brexit. !2
2 When looked upon not as an individualised event, but a tangible manifestation of underlying

universal values in the international community, the critical feminist lens can interpret Brexit

through the investigation of “masculinist, militarist political discourses and identity politics that

uphold the current world order,” allowing room for gender in a topic where it is ignored in favour of

socio-economic analysis. 3 The absence of gendered analysis in regards to Brexit supports the

traditional International Relations doctrine of study that neglects the domestic sphere and the

language of identity, a self-fulfilling prophecy of academic theory reinforcing the absence of

women, the existence of gender norms, and the subaltern in the international political sphere.

Security studies have been brought to the forefront of debate while leaving the foundations of

British society untouched. And while the psychological fear of uncontrollable immigration has been

ingrained in the Brexit media storm and indeed in academic analysis as well, it is a facade. It is a

politicised mask that hides the deeper underlying socialisation of the norms of masculinisation and

feminisation in the psyche of the nation.

At its simplest interpretation, Brexit is about leaving the EU. It is about leaving the

legislation of a disenchanted, outdated suprastate, the red tape of bureaucracy, to ‘take back

control’. Boris Johnson, a major voice in the Leave campaign, punctuated his speeches with the

mantra of control, capturing the British with promises to “take back control of huge sums of money,

take back control of immigration, take back control of our democracy.” 4 A simple phrase with an

immense emotional impact, it reinforces the universal fear of symbolic de-masculinisation

regarding high politics, where The UK, a historical imperial superpower has within the past century

relinquished sovereignty to the progressive processes of economic globalisation and the authority of

2 Aida A. Hoziä, and Jacqui True. "Brexit as a Scandal: Gender and Global Trumpism." Review of
International Political Economy (2017): 1-18. Web. 28 Mar. 2017. Introduction.
3 Ibid.
4Boris Johnson. Leave Campaign. David Nipper Factory, Alfreton, Derbyshire. 23 June 2016. Sunday
Express. Web. 2 Apr. 2017.
 Use feminist IR theory to analyse Brexit. !3
the EU. With the Leave campaign proposals of regaining the position of a trade powerhouse and

rising above the refugee crisis of Europe drenched in imperial rhetoric, the public are “exhorted to

‘take back control’,” yet “the electorate have only fantasies of a lost Empire to reclaim. Fantasy-

imperialism thus meshes with anti-globalisation sentiment – the macho national dominance that will

supposedly quell global feminisation.” 5 The binary of masculinity and femininity manifests itself

time and time again in the Leave campaign, as by utilising the public’s fear of the threat of violence

via economic migrants pouring into Europe from the dark spaces of terror in the Middle East, a

narrative was woven to emphasise the “masculine posturing of protection and its tremendous

emotional appeal.” 6 What Brexit made clear was that the British public viewed the EU as a political

establishment standing in the way of The UK and total sovereignty, total security, total masculinised

power. By turning the two concepts against one another, the EU took upon a very feminine role.

Submissiveness to a supranational body starts to look very unappealing when the psyche of a nation

is wounded, especially when the EU takes on the reputation as a weak and yielding institution

focused on equality and refugee rights, cooperation rather than security, globalisation rather than

nationalism.

The current psychical and political dominance of masculine securitisation over feminine

rhetoric of cooperation mirror the high-low politics binary at play within current European politics.

The EU has a long history of being a gender actor, starting “from a very humble beginning with the

inclusion of Article 119 setting out the principle of equal pay for men and women in the Treaty of

Rome,” to having an arsenal of equality and welfare frameworks that are “one of the most widely

developed areas of European” policy. 7 The EU has pushed forward “additional layer[s] of

5 Ruth Cain. "Post-truth and the ‘metropolitan Elite’ Feminist: Lessons from Brexit." Feminists@Law 6.1
(2016): 1-8. Web. 1 Apr. 2017. pg. 1
6 Hoziä and True. "Brexit as a Scandal: Gender and Global Trumpism." Responsible Women/Emotional Men
7Roberta Guerrina, and Hailey Murphy. "Strategic Silences in the Brexit Debate: Gender, Marginality and
Governance." Journal of Contemporary European Research 12.4 (2016): 873-78. Web. 28 Mar. 2017. pg.
874
 Use feminist IR theory to analyse Brexit. !4
representation for groups (e.g. women) and interests that are largely marginal at the national level,”

creating a system where the subaltern have a platform to speak, and the domestic sphere becomes

an area of international political significance. 8 Nearly entirely of the discussions held before and

after the EU referendum was however “concentrated on issues of ‘high politics’. The issue of

equality was relegated to a footnote at the end of the campaign when both camps sought to capture

women’s votes,” 9 marginalising the impact of Brexit on the livelihood of women, the youth, and

the disabled, those that exist primarily on the far fringes of topics such as national security, global

economics, and foreign policy. Where was the media attention on the immense influence of the EU

on education programmes, social welfare, funding for the arts, and women’s right issues? The

discussion of the long term consequences of leaving the EU and its funding schemes for domestic

livelihood will unfortunately be sidelined in favour of the domain of high politics: the ‘grand

narrative’ of nationalism and imperialism, saturated with “illusions of Empire, imperial attitudes,

[and ] nostalgia.” 10

This has resulted in a forced silencing of matters related to the private sphere and

subsequently the silence of women and the youth that are restricted to it as their ‘domain’. It is

essential to reveal the subaltern voices, as Brexit has been perceived by international media as a

political campaign run by an all-boys-club not in touch with the country at large.11 According to a

Loughborough University study, “across the entire six-week campaign period, men took up 85% of

the press space and 70% of television coverage attributed to four male Conservative leaders and

8Guerrina, and Murphy. "Strategic Silences in the Brexit Debate: Gender, Marginality and Governance." pg.
876
9 Ibid., pg. 877
10Joanna Fomina. "Immigration Policy Debates and Their Significance for Multiculturalism in Britain." Polish
Sociological Review 169 (2010): 57-86. JSTOR. Web. 1 Apr. 2017. pg. 66
11
Jane Freedman. Gendering the International Asylum and Refugee Debate. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2015. Print. pg. 20
 Use feminist IR theory to analyse Brexit. !5
Nigel Farage.” 12 These men represented only an incredibly small socio-economic segment of the

population, gaining their education from the same elite private schools and university, connected by

personal feuds and individualistic political motivations. Political economists Hoziä and True argue

that Brexit was the product of a gendered political game played by the conservative Tory party to

distract the nation from its internal fragmentations, “and even now, after the vote, Brexit continues

to function as a scandal in its own right, taking oxygen from public conversations about structural

problems underlying both the UK and the EU, and ensuring that discussions…remain in the hands

of their technocratic elites.” 13 Regardless of opinion on the impact of individuals on Brexit, it

cannot be denied that the absence of women from the official narrative has made a lasting impact on

the international political landscape. Even though the chauvinistic emotional appeals of protecting

the nation from outside terror saturated the Leave campaign, “those who are constrained in their

ability to speak about their security/insecurity are prevented from becoming subjects worthy of

consideration and protection,”14 turning the masculine posturing of defence and protection into

empty promises. Just as those most affected by the Syrian refugee crisis, the families and

individuals fleeing Syria themselves, are largely absent from the international discourse on refugee

legislation, women were not present in the Brexit discussion when the lack of EU funding and

legislation will most likely impact them the most. In fact, “women aged 18-24 were the group most

strongly in favour of Remain, at 80%.” 15 Yet again, the masculine rhetoric reaching backwards to

the powerful grandeur of the Empire is at play, as “the under-30s, who must endure less security,

higher debt and fewer opportunities than their parents, now see their freedoms further curtailed and

12Hoziä and True. "Brexit as a Scandal: Gender and Global Trumpism." The rise of women leaders in the
Brexit clean up
13 Ibid.
14Jane Freedman. "Protecting Women Asylum Seekers and Refugees: From International Norms to National
Protection?" International Migration 48.1 (2010): 175-98. Web. 1 Apr. 2017. pg. 194
15 Cain. "Post-truth and the ‘metropolitan Elite’ Feminist: Lessons from Brexit." pg. 3
 Use feminist IR theory to analyse Brexit. !6
their ‘country taken back’ to an era they never lived through, amid imperial nostalgia which is

meaningless to them.” 16

The UK is not alone in its move towards populist nationalism. The election of Donald

Trump in America just months after the UK voted to leave the EU, the surge of far-right movements

across Europe, even in traditionally socialist Scandinavia, and the constant presence of terror

attacks on the continent has led to a Western shift towards ‘Trumpism’ and a “rejection of

globalisation, neoliberalism, and the political establishments that have promoted them.” 17 Perhaps

we are entering an age disenfranchised with promises of peace and prosperity, when those in

‘Middle England’ are losing their careers, futures, and stability at expense of the utopia of

cosmopolitanism and neoliberal economic progress. Austerity and national security are safe subjects

in times of uncertainty, when a national psyche can be bolstered up by masculine rhetoric, casting

away that which threatens its already shaky grasp on identity. It is easy to sink back into the past

austerity of Reaganomics, and prideful pragmatism Thatcherism, coupled with the suspicion of

Trumpism, when “liberal notions of gender equality no doubt look like a dream for luckier others to

nurture.” 18 English writer AA Gil envisioned a Leave campaigner just before the referendum…

“The camera closed in on her and she shouted: “All I want is my country back. Give me my country

back”… yelling for the imaginary security of ‘sovereignty’ and the tightening of borders.” 19 A

gendered lens shows that perhaps behind the yelling and beyond the rhetoric, there is a fear, a

universal fear of relinquishing the empowering yet isolating norms of masculinisation when there is

no hope for progress or for cooperation in the bleak future.

16 Cain. "Post-truth and the ‘metropolitan Elite’ Feminist: Lessons from Brexit." pg. 3
17Nancy Fraser. "Progressive Neoliberalism versus Reactionary Populism: A Choice That Feminists Should
Refuse." NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research 24.4 (2016): 281-84. Web. 28 Mar. 2017.
pg. 281
18 Cain. "Post-truth and the ‘metropolitan Elite’ Feminist: Lessons from Brexit." pg. 4
19 Ibid., pg. 3
 Use feminist IR theory to analyse Brexit. !7
Bibliography

Cain, Ruth. "Post-truth and the ‘metropolitan Elite’ Feminist: Lessons from
Brexit." Feminists@Law 6.1 (2016): 1-8. Web. 1 Apr. 2017.

Fomina, Joanna. "Immigration Policy Debates and Their Significance for Multiculturalism in
Britain." Polish Sociological Review 169 (2010): 57-86. JSTOR. Web. 1 Apr. 2017.

Fraser, Nancy. "Progressive Neoliberalism versus Reactionary Populism: A Choice That Feminists
Should Refuse." NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research24.4 (2016):
281-84. Web. 28 Mar. 2017.

Freedman, Jane. Gendering the International Asylum and Refugee Debate. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2015. Print.

Freedman, Jane. "Protecting Women Asylum Seekers and Refugees: From International Norms to
National Protection?" International Migration 48.1 (2010): 175-98. Web. 1 Apr. 2017.

Guerrina, Roberta, and Hailey Murphy. "Strategic Silences in the Brexit Debate: Gender,
Marginality and Governance." Journal of Contemporary European Research 12.4 (2016):
873-78. Web. 28 Mar. 2017.

Hoziä, Aida A., and Jacqui True. "Brexit as a Scandal: Gender and Global Trumpism." Review of
International Political Economy (2017): 1-18. Web. 28 Mar. 2017.

Johnson, Boris. Leave Campaign. David Nipper Factory, Alfreton, Derbyshire. 23 June 2016.
Sunday Express. Web. 2 Apr. 2017.

Mardell, Mark. "What Does 'Brexit Means Brexit' Mean?" BBC News. BBC, 14 July 2016. Web. 02
Apr. 2017.