Scholarship on nationalism and gender explores the processes by which

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...

affects and is impacted by the development of

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

. Sometimes referred to as "gendered nationalism," gender and nationalism describes the phenomena whereby conceptions of the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective Identity (social science), identity of a group of people unde ...

, including notions of

citizenship Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...

, or

national identity National identity is a person's identity or sense of belonging to one or more states or to one or more nations. It is the sense of "a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, and language". National identity ...

contribute to or arise in relation to

gender role A gender role, also known as a sex role, is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person's sex. Gender roles are usually cent ...

History

Overview and key themes

Your motherland will never forget - restoration

Though there are different varieties of nationalism, gender and sexuality affect the way nationalism develops in specific contexts. Different gender systems and gender roles are instituted by or invoked to support nationalist movements in differing ways. For example, when communities determine that nationhood is necessary, and often inevitable, the identity of the nation is often imagined in gendered ways. The physical land itself may be gendered female (i.e. "Motherland"), considered to be a body in constant danger of violation by foreign males, while national pride and protectiveness of "her" borders is gendered as masculine. Legal rights related to gender and sexuality are also impacted by nationalist movements. Kumari Jayawardena's work has explored how the desire for legal recognition and equity motivated women's participation in nationalist movements in Asia. Relatedly, Emil Edenborg has investigated how opposition to legal rights for

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

people in Russia and Chechnya is linked to particular nationalist discourses. Scholarship on gender and nationalism has tended to examine the relationships between gender, sexuality, and national structures by exploring themes of men and masculinity, women and femininity, heteronormativity and sexuality, or along the intersection of religion, race, gender and nationalism.

Men, masculinity, and nationalism

Normative understandings of masculinity and male behavior vary across cultural, historical, or geographical contexts. Because male behavior and masculinity impact social and political relations,

men A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chro ...

and masculinity affect the development of nationalism.

George Mosse Gerhard "George" Lachmann Mosse (September 20, 1918 – January 22, 1999) was an American historian, who emigrated from Nazi Germany first to Great Britain and then to the United States. He was professor of history at the University of Iowa, the ...

has argued that modern masculine stereotypes exist in a mutual relationship to modern nationalism. Nationalism and the structure and expansion of the state are closely related, and institutions like the

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

as well as state projects such as imperialism and

colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colony, colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose the ...

are often dominated by male participants.

Shirin M. Rai Shirin M. Rai (born 1 December 1960), is an interdisciplinary scholar who works across the political science and international relations boundaries. She is known for her research on the intersections between international political economy, gl ...

has also pointed out how economic development tied to nation-building projects in postcolonial contexts is often gendered as masculine, ultimately devaluing the economic stability of women and subaltern men. Within national structures, hierarchical models of authority and decision-making often prioritize men's authority, legal rights, labor, and sexuality. Symbolically and ideologically, nationalist movements frequently valorize masculine projections of honor, patriotism, bravery, physical virility, rationality, individualism, and duty. Banerjee, Sikata. ''Make Me a Man!: Masculinity, Hinduism, and Nationalism in India''. SUNY Press, 2012, 2–3. Joan of Arc Saved France

Women, femininity, and nationalism

Specific social and political roles expected of women are not only tied to conceptions of

femininity Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered f ...

, but are also linked to local and national power relations. Social responsibilities, such as child-rearing, or particular forms of employment and interpersonal engagement become feminized and expected of women.Enloe, Cynthia. ''Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics''. Univ of California Press, 2014, 11–12. Women's labor and women's bodies have provided material and symbolic resources to nationalist and colonial projects. National identities are often linked to women and their reproductive capacity. When women resist these expectations, projections, and roles, their resistance impacts the development of national identity. At the same time, nationalist movements have also provided

disenfranchised Disfranchisement, also called disenfranchisement, or voter disqualification is the restriction of suffrage (the right to vote) of a person or group of people, or a practice that has the effect of preventing a person exercising the right to vote. D ...

women with potential opportunities to be treated as active participants within political and social spheres. Summarizing the relationship between women and nationalism, Nira Yuval-Davis and Flora Anthias distinguish five forms by which women participate in nationalism. In their framework, women act as: biological producers of new national members, symbols of national difference, carriers and creators of cultural narratives, agents enforcing the boundaries of the nation, active participants in national movements.

Heteronormativity, sexuality, and nationalism

Nationalist movements are often aligned with

heteronormative Heteronormativity is the concept that heterosexuality is the preferred or normal mode of sexual orientation. It assumes the gender binary (i.e., that there are only two distinct, opposite genders) and that sexual and marital relations are most ...

family models, that is,

heterosexual Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" ...

family units assuming male leadership, female reproduction, as well as natural and complementary roles between men and women. Thus, nationalism has been identified as a tool to support heteronormative structures of power that exclude or subjugate

sexual minorities A sexual minority is a group whose sexual identity, sexual orientation, orientation or practices differ from the majority of the surrounding society. Primarily used to refer to lesbian, gay, bisexual, or non-heterosexual individuals, it can al ...

and those outside of the male-female

gender binary The gender binary (also known as gender binarism) is the classification of gender into two distinct, opposite forms of masculine and feminine, whether by social system, cultural belief, or both simultaneously. Most cultures use a gender binary ...

. These kind of movements also tend to emphasize heterosexual ideals as an antagonism of countries where LGBTI rights have been legislated, in a dynamic that some have called heteronationalism.

Religion, race, gender, and nationalism

Race and religion intersect with the development of nationalism and impact how gender roles are structured in relation to nationalism.

Racialization In sociology, racialization or ethnicization is a political process of ascribing ethnic or racial identities to a relationship, social practice, or group that did not identify itself as such. Racialization or ethnicization often arises out of th ...

, the process of ascribing race to particular social groups or individuals, always corresponds to particular configurations of gender, class, and nationalism. For example, according to scholar

Anne McClintock Anne McClintock (born 1954) is a Zimbabwean-South African writer, feminist scholar and public intellectual who has published widely on issues of sexuality, race, imperialism, and nationalism; popular and visual culture, photography, advertising a ...

, the development of Afrikaner nationalism in South Africa was dependent on the rise of an

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

doctrine among Afrikaner people and was also tied to gender roles that positioned women as subservient to men and with responsibilities of service to the nation. Religion may also affect participation in nationalist movements, nationalist discourse, and motivations for establishing nation-states. The inclusion or expulsion of particular religious communities may be aligned with particular forms of gendered nationalist discourse. Theorist Jasbir Puar suggests that gendered discourses of nationalism often demonize or advocate the expulsion of Muslim people in the United States, thus tying particular understandings of the nation-state and nationalism to specific configurations of gender. Religion may also inform gender roles in particular locations, thus when nationalist projects are undertaken women and men may feel tension between the gender expectations of their religion and the gender expectations associated with nationalist discourse.

Scholarly studies of nationalism and gender

Nationalism and gender studies is a subfield within the broader interdisciplinary study of

, also referred to as

nationalism studies Nationalism studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of nationalism and related issues. While nationalism has been the subject of scholarly discussion since at least the late eighteenth century, it is only since the e ...

. Nationalism and gender studies draw on

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

, queer theory, postcolonialism, and interdisciplinary methods to investigate the interplay between

and nationalism. A shared evaluation among many scholars is that gender, sexuality, and nationalism are socially and culturally constructed. Scholars of gender and nationalism thus argue that gender configurations are always intimately related to and impact the development of nationalism. The development of nationalism and gender studies arose due to a lack study about the way gender and sexuality intersect with nationalism by mainstream scholars of nationalism. Feminist scholars were among the first theorists to approach the relationship between nationalism and gender and began writing of the relationship between gender, sexuality, and nationalism in the 1980s and 1990s. These early feminist studies of gender and nationalism focused primarily on the role of women in the development of nationalism. However, several scholars are now approaching multiple dimensions of gender and sexuality in relation to the development of nationalism. Context and location are important for understanding how nationalism develops. Therefore, scholars often use case studies to explore how gender and nationalism are linked in specific contexts. Among other locations, case studies exploring gender and nationalism have analyzed situations in Canada, Argentina, India, South Africa, Israel, Russia, Ireland, and the United States. Due to the interplay between colonialism, migration, and nationalism, other theorists have paid specific attention to the interplay of gender and nationalism in postcolonial contexts and have explored the relationship between

transnationalism Transnationalism is a research field and social phenomenon grown out of the heightened interconnectivity between people and the receding economic and social significance of boundaries among nation states. Overview The term "trans-national" was ...

and gender.

Related terms

Muscular nationalism

Muscular nationalism is a term developed by the political scientist Sikata Banerjee to describe the development of nationalism amidst tensions produced by gender binaries. Banerjee describes muscular nationalism as a form of nationalism that relies on a binary notion of gender with opposing conceptions of man versus woman. In such a situation, female activists and political actors contest a dualistic notion of nationalism, thus generating political, cultural, and social tension. The form of nationalism resulting from the binary and its contestation is muscular nationalism.

Queer nationalism

Within studies of nationalism, gender, and sexuality,

queer nationalism Queer nationalism is a phenomenon related both to the gay and lesbian liberation movement and nationalism. Adherents of this movement support the notion that the LGBT community forms a distinct people due to their unique culture and customs. Q ...

refers the process wherein homosexuality and queer sexuality function as the basis of social and political organization and produce particular nationalisms. Queer nationalism can also refer to the process of using queerness as a metaphor for types of affiliations between nation-states.

Homonationalism

Scholars have used the term

homonationalism Homonationalism is often seen as the favorable association between a nationalist ideology and LGBT people or their rights,

to describe the emergence of nationalism that advances support for homosexuality and

rights while also promoting

xenophobic Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...

, racist, colonialist, and supremacist ideologies. Jasbir Puar, who first developed the term homonationalism, has argued that it describes a form of nationalism that assumes "sexual exceptionalism, queer as regulatory, and the ascendancy of whiteness."

Femonationalism

Developed by theorist Sara Farris, femonationalism describes a particular form of nationalism within western European contexts. Farris defines femonationalism as a form of nationalism that deploys feminist critique and support for

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...

while simultaneously promoting xenophobic, racist, and anti-Islam sentiment and policy.Farris, Sara, and Catherine Rottenberg. “Introduction: Righting Feminism.” ''New Formations: A Journal of Culture, Theory & Politics'' 91, no. 1 (2017): 5–15.