Feminism asks the question: where are the women? In international affairs, women are often caught across all kinds of borders: sometimes physical borders, sometimes because marriage creates borders and sometimes because they refuse to make choices about their identity.

At a time when hypermasculine figures dominate the world stage, it’s not possible to be sanguine about equality. There is no such thing as momentum and a sustained and active effort is required to roll back sexism.

On the biggest challenges facing feminism, feminism will stay alive if it is constantly in a state of learning where it remains open about the details of women’s lives.

Apoorva Kolluru, book review editor of the Australian Journal of International Affairs, spoke with Professor Cynthia Enloe at the IPSA World Congress 2018 in Brisbane.

Cynthia Enloe is Research Professor of International Development and Women’s Studies at Clark University in Massachusetts. She is a seminal voice in feminist international relations, having published more than 15 books and served on the advisory board of several academic journals.

Interview by Apoorva Kolluru.

Video and editing by Jasmine Gan and Tommy Chai.