The Duck of Minerva

Megan MacKenzie

Megan MacKenzie is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney in Australia. Her main research interests include feminist international relations, gender and the military, the combat exclusion for women, the aftermaths of war and post-conflict resolution, and transitional justice. Her book Beyond the Band of Brothers: the US Military and the Myth that Women Can't Fight comes out with Cambridge University Press in July 2015. https://www.cambridge.org/ee/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/international-relations-and-international-organisations/beyond-band-brothers-us-military-and-myth-women-cant-fight?format=PB

Recent Posts

The Token Woman on Hiring Committees: time for a change

by Megan MacKenzie | 4 November, 2013 |

Policies and practices set up to avoid discrimination in the past have a tendency to expire. Remember, 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' was originally set up to protect gay service-members within the US forces. Similarly, the often unofficial rule of having one woman on hiring committees has reached its expiry date. Primarily as a result of effective equality and diversity campaigns in the 1980s and early 1990s, many departments instituted either an explicit or informal policy to include 'at least' one woman on each hiring committee- usually after finding that most hiring committees included no women,...

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Monday Linkage: gender x

by Megan MacKenzie | 4 November, 2013 |

The world is buzzing with news that Germany has introduced a 'third sex'- or, the option to leave a child's gender as indeterminate. This raises a slough of questions and long-overdue discussion. Speaking of gender, Californians are debating a new law in California (AB 1266) that would allow trans-gender students to choose their preferred gender pronoun and identity. Critics worry that it would result in a violation of privacy (most of the concerns seem to be about boys using female bathrooms). Obama is pushing Congress to pass a bill that would prevent employers from discriminating on the...

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Monday Linkage: Roma and race links

Monday Linkage: Roma and race links

by Megan MacKenzie | 28 October, 2013 | ,

The recent 'Maria' case- involving a young blonde girl taken from a Roma family and found to be the daughter of a Bulgarian Roma couple- has inspired greater scrutiny of Roma communities.  More specifically, there have been subsequent cases of children taken from their Roma families because they did not 'look' Roma; however subsequent DNA tests confirmed the children to be the 'legitimate' biological children of their parents. A recent Spectator post calls the cases: a clash of "two great hysterias...racism and child-snatching, the Guardian’s obsession versus the Sun’s." These cases have...

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Monday Linkage: targeting mothers, uteruses, and the key to ending congressional deadlock

by Megan MacKenzie | 21 October, 2013 |

According to economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett, "gender smarts" were key to ending the recent congressional deadlock. She argues: "Unlocking gridlock in government, it turns out, depends on precisely the mechanism that unlocks competitive strength in the private sector: a diverse team (laden with gender smarts and cultural fluency) managed by leaders whose aggregate of experience motivates them to manage inclusively." A new "ism": motherism, or prejudice against stay-at-home-moms.The Guardian reports that- according to Dr Aric Sigman, a biologist and psychologist- "stay-at-home mothers are...

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Monday Morning Linkage- it’s all about balance

by Megan MacKenzie | 14 October, 2013 |

Women missing...online? The Huffington Post has reported that the gender gap exists online- with 200 million fewer women using the internet than men. Scholars, students, and the general public are set to sit in for a 6-hour editing party at Brown University to try to remedy the gender imbalance on wikipedia (NYT suggests that only 15% of its editors are women). One area where there is a little gender equality? Apparently there is equal gender representation of gay characters on US television. HBO has the most number of gay characters in total (duh). Jeni Klugman at Reuters wrote an...

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A Tale of Two Poverties: Sachs versus the world

by Megan MacKenzie | 4 October, 2013 |

Interpreting evidence related to poverty and development is never straightforward. Neo-liberal supporters of free market economics tend to point to economic growth as evidence that global inequality is stabilising, while those "closer to the ground" often point out the limitations of economic measurements and encourage a broader understanding of the everyday signs of exploitation and inequality in countries around the world- classic Development Studies 101. Evidence of this sustained divide between those who talk about poverty and those who seek to understand global economic inequality can...

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The Aussie Military Redefinig Masculinity Amidst Another Scandal?

by Megan MacKenzie | 15 June, 2013 |

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) finds themselves in yet another sex scandal this week. The force has barely recovered from last year's 'skype scandal,' which involved members of a defense force academy videotaping sex without permission and streaming it to other members of the academy. This time it is alleged that officers have videotaped sex with other colleagues and civilian women and distributed the videos via the defence email system. It is a disappointing revelation considering the promises to rid the force of sexism following the scandal last year. If the allegations prove true, it...

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ISA Survival Guide for Grad Students: the essential clothing, food, shelter, and networking dos and don’ts

by Megan MacKenzie | 24 March, 2013 |

It is time again for the International Studies Association Annual Conference. With thousands of attendees, a phone book full of panels, and a slough of receptions, dinners, meetings, and opportunities, the whole thing can be a bit overwhelming as a grad student (and for everyone else too!). You've likely received advice on how to present your work in 10 seconds or less- but what about the rest of the conference? Here are a couple of key tips for surviving the four days and getting the most out of the experience. Before we get to the real essentials (food, shelter, and clothing), let's start...

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Torture as War Victory: My Hugely Unpopular Thesis about the ‘Real’ Agenda of Zero Dark Thirty

by Megan MacKenzie | 23 February, 2013 |

"This is what winning looks like" I have to confess, I was late to watch "Zero Dark Thirty" (ODT). I read a handful of reviews and blogs about the movie, had arguments with friends about its message, and even wrote it off completely--all weeks before I bothered to watch it. I wasn't interested in watching another American war movie, nor was I keen to see the lengthy torture scenes I had read about in the reviews. I figured I already knew exactly what the content was (are there every any real surprises in American war movies? and, didn't we all know how this story ended anyway?) and that...

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Thursday evening linkage

by Megan MacKenzie | 14 February, 2013 |

Happy Valentine's Day Duckies! Here are a few interesting links on love and gender. First, for those of you feeling completely clueless when it comes to romance, the Huffington Post put up a list of Five Courses about Sex and Love, including "Beyond Hooking Up: Creating Meaningful Relationships" -- a Chemistry and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies course at Williams College (Williamstown, Massachusetts) and "Dating and Mating" -- a Women's Studies course at Duke University (Durham, North Carolina). Second, rather than chocolates, Ms Magazine hands out a list of suggestions for ways to...

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