War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa
Cambridge University Press, 6/13/2014
EAN 9780521807166, ISBN10: 0521807166
Hardcover, 100 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 3.5 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Gender roles are nowhere more prominent than in war. Yet contentious debates, and the scattering of scholarship across academic disciplines, have obscured understanding of how gender affects war and vice versa. In this authoritative and lively review of our state of knowledge, Joshua Goldstein assesses the possible explanations for the near-total exclusion of women from combat forces, through history and across cultures. Topics covered include the history of women who did fight and fought well, the complex role of testosterone in men's social behaviours, and the construction of masculinity and femininity in the shadow of war. Goldstein concludes that killing in war does not come naturally for either gender, and that gender norms often shape men, women, and children to the needs of the war system. lllustrated with photographs, drawings, and graphics, and drawing from scholarship spanning six academic disciplines, this book provides a unique study of a fascinating issue.
1. A puzzle
the cross-cultural consistency of gender roles in war
2. Women warriors
the historical record of female combatants
3. Bodies
the biology of individual gender
4. Groups
bonding, hierarchy, and social identity
5. Heroes
the making of militarised masculinity
6. Conquests
sex, rape, and exploitation in wartime
7. Reflections
the mutuality of gender and war.