Women, feminisms and founding myths in international relations

Over the past few years, a significant body of academic writing in International Relations (ir) has contributed to critically reflecting on the traditional narrative of ir. Most of this literature has focused on the early years of ir, questioning its supposed birth in 1919, as well as the existence of liberal idealism and the first great debate. This article seeks to contribute to such critical efforts, adding as variables women internationalists and some feminisms of the early part of the 20th century—particularly related to socialism and/or pacifism—to show important shortcomings of conventional history. Through a textual analysis of the writings of various internationalists of the early 20th century, as well as their work in building institutions related to international affairs, the article exposes five disciplinary myths of ir. It concludes that there is a diversity of contributions from various feminisms and women to the discipline before 1980, although they continue to be obscured by orthodox history. This has important implications for our historiographical understanding of ir, the roots of internationalist feminism, and the possibility of rescuing new theoretical approaches.