Cynthia Holden Enloe (born July 16, 1938) is an American political theorist, feminist writer, and a professor emeritus at Clark University. She is best known for her work on gender and militarism and for her contributions to the field of feminist international relations. She has also influenced the field of feminist political geography, with feminist geopolitics in particular.
Cynthia Enloe was born in New York City and grew up in Manhasset, Long Island, a New York suburb. Her father was from Missouri and went to medical school in Germany. Her mother went to Mills College and married Cynthia's father upon graduation.
After completing her undergraduate education at Connecticut College in 1960, she went on to earn an M.A. in 1963 and a Ph.D. in 1967 in political science at the University of California, Berkeley. While at Berkeley, Enloe was the first woman ever to be a Head TA for Aaron Wildavsky, then an up-and-coming star in the field of American Politics. For much of her professional life she taught at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. At Clark, Enloe served as Chair of the Department of Political Science and as Director of Women's Studies. She also served on the university's Committee on Personnel and its Planning and Budget Review Committee. Enloe was awarded Clark University's Outstanding Teacher Award on three separate occasions.
At the beginning of her career, Enloe mainly focused on studying ethnic and racial politics. She completed her dissertation in Malaysia on a Fulbright Scholarship from 1965 to 1966. There, she researched the country's ethnic politics. Ten years after receiving her PhD, Enloe had written six books on the subject of ethnical tensions and its role in politics; however, she had yet to look at any of these subjects from a feminist angle, something she admits being "embarrassed of". It was not until she first began teaching at Clark University, in the middle of the U.S.-Vietnam war, that Enloe really began to develop her feminist thought. She spoke with a colleague at Clark, the only man on the faculty who was a veteran, about his experiences during the Vietnam war. He mentioned that Vietnamese women were hired by American soldiers to do their laundry. Enloe began to wonder how history would be different if the entire war had been told through the eyes of these Vietnamese women.
Ever since, Enloe's work has primarily focused upon how feminist and gendered politics have shaped the national and international conversations. Enloe focuses on the unfair treatment of women in globalized factory and the many ways in which women are exploited for their labor. She also critiques global as well as U.S. militarization, specifically the roles women play in combat. Enloe is not afraid to address security from a feminist perspective. She argues that the U.S. military model trains men to be the protectors of women and then produces an environment in which women are the victims of physical violence. One of Enloe's many contributions to feminist writings has been her coining of the term "feminist curiosity". It came about in 2003. when Enloe was giving a talk at Ochanomizu University, a historic women's university in Tokyo, Japan. She has said that she wanted to come up with a phrase that she felt could be understood in both English and Japanese, as her lecture was being translated for those who attended. Enloe created this idea of "feminist curiosity" as a way of saying that feminism is about the questions you ask, not just the answers you give.
Having retired from Clark, Enloe is a research professor in the Department of International Development, Community, and Environment and is still a frequent and energetic lecturer. In addition to serving on the editorial board for scholarly journals such as Signs and the International Feminist Journal of Politics, Cynthia Enloe has written fifteen books, mostly published by the University of California Press. Much of Enloe's research centers on women's place in national and international politics. Her books cover a wide range of issues encompassing gender-based discrimination as well as racial, ethnic, and national identities. She is also a member of the academic network of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
Enloe states that she has been influenced by many other feminists who use an ethnographic approach, specifically, Seung-Kyung Kim's (1997) work on South Korean women factory workers during the pro-democracy campaign and Anne Allison's 1994 work on observing corporate businessmen's interactions with hostesses in a Tokyo drinking club, Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club. Enloe has also listed Diane Singerman, Purnima Mankekar, and Cathy Lutz as people who have inspired and influenced her work. When asked how she defines feminism for herself, Enloe stated that "Feminism is the pursuit of deep, deep justice for women in ways that change the behaviors of both women and men, and really change our notions of what justice looks like." 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), and Clark University (2014).
She currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with partner Joni Seager.
Bananas, Beaches, and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (first published by Pandora Press in 1989, with a revised edition published in 2014) presents sexism as a prevalent issue and gives readers a look at the history of such commonplace components of the modern world as the tourism industry. Enloe displays the links between women of different cultures during the 1800s. Enloe discusses colonialism in light of the typically held perceptions of the masculine West and the feminine East. Discussing women from varied cultures, Enloe investigates how Muslim women, among others, felt compelled to validate their cultural practices in the face of Orientalism. This book argues that lack of understanding of foreign cultures and fascination with the differences in clothing and lifestyles of indigenous and colonial populations contributed to their continued subjugation.
Bananas Beaches and Bases conveys the issues that feminist movements face because of nationalism and socially instilled masculinity after years of Western colonialism. International politics have worked against feminist movements because of the long lasting influences of colonialism. The antiquated ideas of colonialism have complicated the goals of the feminist cause. Colonialism encouraged Western countries to believe they were superior to non Western countries, ultimately leading to Western men believing they were superior to women. During Western colonialism women were treated as sexual symbols of exploration, postcards specifically. Westerner exploration and tourism went hand in hand with the exploitation of women.
Women who were invested in the ideas of nationalism were not valued as valid participants. Additionally, women wearing veils became a question of nationalism. European colonizers saw the veil in Muslim countries as a symbol of female seclusion. Then arose the question of whether Muslim women should demonstrate their commitment to the nationalist cause by wearing the veil or throwing it away.
Bananas Beaches and Bases reinforces the fact that masculinity has been used to create a patriarchal system, leading to male dominance over women. Militarization during wartime has reinforced masculinized social order. The war in Vietnam which re-masculinized America serves as an example of how gender and warfare became intertwined through specific gender roles during war.
In her writing, Enloe uses Afghanistan as an example of how national militarization was harmful towards women trying to establish a presence in nationalist movements. Afghani women living in rural communities were caught in war and were in danger of bombings or exile. The militarization in Afghanistan emphasized the importance of unity and "national survival", this emphasis silenced women in the nationalist movements. National militarization benefited men and oppressed women who were seeking to change the patriarchal structure in place. The enforcement of world order through militarization consequently reinforced the influences of masculinity, further challenging feminist efforts to equalize society.