‘Foundational Women’ and Studying Gender at the School of International Studies

The School of International Studies (SIS) of the Jawaharlal Nehru University was amongst the first institutions in India to teach the deep interlinkages between gender and International Relations (IR), developing the ideas of feminism in the discipline at a time when IR theory was embedded in a male-centric and patriarchal viewing of IR, security studies and international development. This article chronicles and highlights the role of the ‘foundational women’ academics of SIS. The article then goes on to discuss the gradual entrenchment of feminist visions—in particular, from India and the Global South—of studying, teaching and researching gender and IR in SIS.