Abstract

This article develops a critical realist, strategic-relational analysis of the gendering of the state. It draws freely from feminist theorists, recent work on masculinity, and some of the insights of ‘queer theory’. My aim is to show the contingently necessary nature of the gender biases in the state's institutional architecture and operation and show how these can be illuminated through a critical realist, strategic-relational perspective. The article has four main parts. These deal with critical realism and the strategic-relational approach ; its implications for analyzing gender selectivities; the gender selectivities of advanced capitalist democratic states; and some implications of strategic selectivity for feminist action.