Bananas, Beaches And Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics

Originally published in 1990, Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics by Cynthia Enloe exposes how coverage of international politics renders women invisible and therefore fails to question the devastating impact of those politics on their lives. Enloe argues that powerful men have intentionally sustained a gendered hierarchy in international politics and that women, acting collectively, can change this patriarchal system. The author draws on her experience as a professor of political science who has written extensively about women and politics in the field of international studies. The second edition of the book, published in 2014, was extensively updated and revised. For her many contributions to the studies of women and international politics, Enloe has received several prestigious awards, including the Zinn Lifetime Achievement in Peace Studies Award.

This guide refers to the 2014 paperback edition.

Content Warning: The book and this guide refer to sex and human trafficking, sexual enslavement, sexual harassment and assault, and domestic violence.

Summary

Political commentators (who are primarily men) often do not inquire about women’s roles in international politics, attributing them to tradition. Enloe investigates how power operates across international boundaries, and she aims to help women recognize the policy choices that support expected behavior. Recognizing this helps enable women to resist the local and international power dynamics that keep them in subordinate roles. In the 21st century, several transnational groups headed by women have emerged to do just that, challenging governments, the media, and corporations to change this gender hierarchy.

Tourism is a large, international business, and its structure and growth have been tied to patriarchy. Earlier in history, travel in the forms of adventure and exploration was depicted as a masculine activity. Diverse women, deemed exotic, were lures for men to travel. Sex tourism still exists in the 21st century, as countries use women as national sex symbols to attract men, and policies are formulated to allow sex work to go unnoticed. The plight of women who do sex work and whether they were coerced into the role receives little attention or curiosity. Women, of course, travel in large numbers in the 21st century as well. When women decide to travel to a country, they are acting in this international business and should be mindful of the effects of their decisions. Women make up 90% of sex tourism’s low-wage workers. This statistic results from intentional policies. For example, the commercial airline industry in its early days decided to employ only men as pilots despite the availability of women pilots.

Women are assigned subordinate roles in military and diplomatic service. While women participate in nationalist causes, they do not do so on equal terms with men. When women question the gender hierarchy, they are told to suppress those concerns until the nationalist cause is victorious. If they persist, they are labeled as traitors or otherwise insulted. The failure to confront gendered power during a nationalist campaign further entrenches men’s power in its aftermath. Military bases depend on women in a range of social positions (such as sex workers, soldiers, and wives), and policies aim to keep these women apart from one another. This separation supports the patriarchal power structure. Policies ensure a supply of sex workers to male soldiers as the military and local authorities structure business regulations and economic opportunities available to women.

Commanders expect a certain type of wife for male soldiers, specifically a wife who is compliant, willing to sacrifice her career, and does not complain about domestic violence. Officers have overlooked not only domestic violence but also sexual assaults on female soldiers, which are prevalent. When military wives began to organize and lobby for improved benefits and divorce laws, the military shifted from large bases to lily pads (bases where soldiers live without their families).

Few women occupy top diplomatic positions. Enloe demonstrates how marriage policies have played a decisive role in opening or closing opportunities for women. Before the 1970s, women working as diplomats had to resign from the US State Department if they married. The organization expected the male diplomats’ wives to perform key functions, and their performance was included in their husbands’ evaluations. However, these women received no pay or recognition and were left destitute in their old age if their husbands divorced them. Beginning in the 1970s, women in diverse positions (wives, administrative assistants, and diplomats) organized and began to challenge these policies. They succeeded in effecting policy changes, but the diplomatic sphere remains dominated by men.

In business, women are assigned low-paying jobs by design. In the banana industry, large corporations employ women to wash the pesticides off the fruit and pack them. Paid below-subsistence wages, some of these women supplement their income by offering sex to the male workers. The corporations expect and welcome this practice because it helps keep male workers in line. Beginning in 1985, female workers, called bananeras, began to organize and requested recognition in men’s unions. While they were initially rebuffed and humiliated, they persisted, and as a result, women hold leadership positions in some unions in the 21st century. In the garment industry, the workforce has been feminized to cheapen its cost. When women have organized and achieved gains in the form of better wages and safer conditions, corporations have responded by relocating factories to countries without such organizations. Banks, which provide loans to governments and corporations, contribute to this system of depressed wages and unsafe conditions by demanding high profitability ratios. Corporate executives and local officials abide by the banks’ conditions, which have a devastating impact on the lives of women: They must work long hours in unsafe conditions for little pay. In Bangladesh, more than 1,000 people (mostly women) died when those unsafe conditions resulted in a fire and the collapse of a building.

Women make up 83% of the approximately 53 million domestic workers, who are among the most exploited workers. This market is international, exporting domestic workers from poorer countries to wealthier ones. The exporting countries rely on the income sent back home and therefore are reluctant to advocate for the workers’ rights. Often working in private homes and in isolated situations, these workers are often abused, overworked, and underfed. Beginning in the 1990s and continuing into the 21st century, domestic workers organized and effected some reforms in the form of an international treaty recognizing their rights, such as the right to time off and a minimum wage.

So-called private relationships, in families, impact governments and international politics. These relationships favor masculine control and are supported by authorities in the form of policies and norms. Moreover, governments depend on certain private relationships to conduct foreign affairs, and corporations depend on them to ensure profitability. Enloe repeatedly explains that perpetuating these skewed relationships requires considerable effort; they do not occur naturally. However, women can act to resist these policies and norms. It is urgent that they do so given the dire impact of the patriarchal power structure on their lives. To support such resistance and bring about change, scholars must ask where the women are and expose the gendered power structure of national and international politics.