Band of Sisters


Book Description

Profiles twelve women soldiers who have served in the Iraq War, describing their experiences in the war, discussing the pressures of the job, and touching on the difficulties of being a woman in the military.




Women at War in the Borderlands of the Early American Northeast


Book Description

Across the borderlands of the early American northeast, New England, New France, and Native nations deployed women with surprising frequency to the front lines of wars that determined control of North America. Far from serving as passive helpmates in a private, domestic sphere, women assumed wartime roles as essential public actors, wielding muskets, hatchets, and makeshift weapons while fighting for their families, communities, and nations. Revealing the fundamental importance of martial womanhood in this era, Gina M. Martino places borderlands women in a broad context of empire, cultural exchange, violence, and nation building, demonstrating how women's war making was embedded in national and imperial strategies of expansion and resistance. As Martino shows, women's participation in warfare was not considered transgressive; rather it was integral to traditional gender ideologies of the period, supporting rather than subverting established systems of gender difference. In returning these forgotten women to the history of the northeastern borderlands, this study challenges scholars to reconsider the flexibility of gender roles and reveals how women's participation in transatlantic systems of warfare shaped institutions, polities, and ideologies in the early modern period and the centuries that followed.







Our Mothers' War


Book Description

Our Mothers' War is a stunning and unprecedented portrait of women during World War II, a war that forever transformed the way women participate in American society. Never before has the vast range of women's experiences during this pivotal era been brought together in one book. Now, Our Mothers' War re-creates what American women from all walks of life were doing and thinking, on the home front and abroad. These heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking accounts of the women we have known as mothers, aunts, and grandmothers reveal facets of their lives that have usually remained unmentioned and unappreciated. Our Mothers' War gives center stage to one of WWII's most essential fighting forces: the women of America, whose extraordinary bravery, strength, and humanity shine through on every page.




Mobilizing Minerva


Book Description

American women did more than pursue roles as soldiers, doctors, and nurses during World War I. Mobilizing Minerva: American Women in the First World War reveals women's motivations for fighting for full citizenship rights both on and off the battlefield. The war provided chances for women to participate in the military, but also in other male-dominated career paths. Intense discussions of rape, methods of protecting women, and proper gender roles abound as Kimberly Jensen draws from rich case studies to show how female thinkers and activists wove wartime choices into long-standing debates about woman suffrage and economic parity. The war created new urgency in these debates, and Jensen forcefully presents the case of women participants and activists: women's involvement in the obligation of citizens to defend the state validated their right of full female citizenship.




An Encyclopedia of American Women at War


Book Description

A sweeping review of the role of women within the American military from the colonial period to the present day. In America, the achievements, defeats, and glory of war are traditionally ascribed to men. Women, however, have been an integral part of our country's military history from the very beginning. This unprecedented encyclopedia explores the accomplishments and actions of the "fairer sex" in the various conflicts in which the United States has fought. An Encyclopedia of American Women at War: From the Home Front to the Battlefields contains entries on all of the major themes, organizations, wars, and biographies related to the history of women and the American military. The book traces the evolution of their roles--as leaders, spies, soldiers, and nurses--and illustrates women's participation in actions on the ground as well as in making the key decisions of developing conflicts. From the colonial conflicts with European powers to the current War on Terror, coverage is comprehensive, with material organized in an easy-to-use, A-Z, ready-reference format. An extensive bibliography offers additional reading and research opportunities Accessibly written essays introduce the thematic developments of each major conflict in American history Supporting photographs and illustrations depict key female figures An informative overview in the frontmatter provides historical context to women's roles in the military




American Women in a World at War


Book Description

This title brings together twenty-five writings by women who share their rich and varied World War II experiences, from serving in the military to working on the home front to preparing for the postwar world. By providing evidence of their active and resourceful roles in the war effort as workers, wives, and mothers, these women offer eloquent testimony that World War II was indeed everybody's war. Litoff and Smith combine pieces by well-known writers, such as Margaret Culkin Banning and Nancy Wilson Ross, with important-but largely forgotten-personal accounts by ordinary women living in extraordinary times. This volume is divided into the six sections listed below: Preparing for War In the Military At 'Far-Flung' Fronts On the Home Front War Jobs Preparing for the Postwar World




The War on Women in the United States


Book Description

The book examines gender roles, gender inequity, and the impacts of both unintentional and purposeful efforts to undermine women's equal treatment in the United States, documenting what women have faced in the past and still face in America today. Although women's rights is a worldwide issue, this book examines how in the United States, an alleged "war on women" is still occurring. Are there only forces opposing women's equality that aim to subvert women's advancement, or are defensive strategies employed as well? What has been the offensive response from women and supportive groups of women? Is there actually substantial evidence of a "war on women," or is the idea primarily political rhetoric? Are the actions and behaviors contributing to gender inequality intentional or unintentional? In this unique collection, experts from multiple disciplines analyze the U.S. women's rights movement, developments, progress, and obstacles. The chapters extend the analogy of this fight for equal rights with a war to document how women's struggle for gender equality is simultaneously a health issue, a political issue, and a wider issue of social justice—a formidable challenge in which women's lives are sometimes literally at stake and at risk. The book's contributors and editors take the unique angle of eyeing the fight for equality on the same level as a war, analyzing this "war" on historical/social/cultural levels (the "battlefield"); identifying policy, political, and legal issues ("major battles"); and explaining how to best fight on personal or individual levels ("skirmishes"). The coverage includes current federal and state initiatives that have fueled concern that women's rights are under continued assault. All of the nearly 162 million women in the United States—and their family members, regardless of sex—are affected by the issues addressed in this book.




Women's War


Book Description

"A stunning portrayal of a tragedy endured and survived by women." --David W. Blight, author of Frederick Douglass "Readers expecting hoop-skirted ladies soothing fevered soldiers' brows will not find them here...It explodes the fiction that men fight wars while women idle on the sidelines." --Washington Post "As McCurry points out in this gem of a book, many historians who view the American Civil War as a 'people's war' nevertheless neglect the actions of half the people." --James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom "In this brilliant exposition of the politics of the seemingly personal, McCurry illuminates previously unrecognized dimensions of the war's elemental impact." --Drew Gilpin Faust, author of This Republic of Suffering The idea that women are outside of war is a powerful myth in western culture, one that shaped the Civil War and still determines how we write about it today. Through three dramatic stories that span the course of the war, this groundbreaking reconsideration invites us to see America's bloodiest conflict for what it was: not just a brothers' war but a women's war. When Union soldiers faced the unexpected threat of female partisans, saboteurs, and spies, long held assumptions about the innocence of enemy women were suddenly thrown into question. Stephanie McCurry shows how the case of Clara Judd, imprisoned for treason, transformed the writing of Lieber's Code, leading to lasting changes in the laws of war. Black women's fight for freedom had no place in the Union military's emancipation plans. Facing a massive problem of governance as former slaves fled to their ranks, officers re-classified black women as "soldiers' wives"--whether or not they were married--placing new obstacles on their path to freedom. Finally, Women's War offers a new perspective on the epic human drama of Reconstruction through the story of one slaveholding woman, Gertrude Thomas, whose losses went well beyond the material to intimate matters of family, love, and belonging. Thomas's response mixed grief with rage, recasting white supremacy in new, still relevant, terms.