Women in the military

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Four American F-15 Eagle pilots from the 3d Wing walk to their jets at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

For over 3,000 years in a large number of cultures and nations, women have played many roles in the military, from ancient warrior women, to the women currently serving in conflicts, although the vast majority of all combatants in every culture have been men.

Even though women serving in the military has often been controversial, a very small number of women in history have fought alongside men. In the American Civil War, there were a few women who cross-dressed as men in order to fight. Fighting on the battlefront in disguise was not the only way women involved themselves in war. Some also served as nurses and aides.

Despite various, though limited, roles in the armies of past societies, the role of women in the military, particularly in combat, is controversial and it is only recently that women have begun to be given a more prominent role in contemporary armed forces. As increasing numbers of countries begin to expand the role of women in their militaries, the debate continues.

More recently, from the beginning of the 1970s, most Western armies have begun to admit women to serve active duty in all of military branches.[1]

History

World War I

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A group of female motor ambulance drivers from the British Voluntary Aid Detachment in France during 1917

Thousands of women served as nurses and in other support roles in the major armies.

The only nation to deploy female combat troops in substantial numbers was Russia. From the outset, female recruits either joined up in disguise or were tacitly accepted by their units. The most prominent were a contingent of front-line light cavalry in a Cossack regiment commanded by a female colonel. Others included the famous Maria Bochkareva, who was decorated three times and promoted to senior NCO rank, while the New York Times reported that a group of twelve schoolgirls from Moscow had joined up together disguised as young men.[2] In 1917, the Provisional Government raised a number of "Women's Battalions", with Bochkareva given an officer's commission to command the first unit. They fought well, but failed to provide the propaganda value expected of them and were disbanded before the end of the year. In the later Russian Civil War, the Bolsheviks employed some women infantry, while female soldiers are also recorded in the White Guard.[3]

World War II

Roza Shanina, a Soviet sniper during World War II, credited with 54 confirmed target hits. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units,[4] chiefly as medics and nurses.

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All the main nations used women in uniform. The great majority performed nursing, clerical or support roles. Over 500,000 had combat roles in anti-aircraft units in Britain and Germany, and front-line units in Russia.

Britain

In 1938, the British took the lead worldwide in establishing uniformed services for women, in addition to the small units of nurses that had long been in operation. In late 1941, Britain began conscripting women, sending most into factory work and some into the military, especially the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), attached to the army. It began as a woman's auxiliary to the military in 1938, and in 1941 was granted military status (with 2/3 pay compared to men). Women had a well-publicized role in handling anti-aircraft guns against German planes and V-1 missiles. The daughter of Prime Minister Winston Churchill was there, and he gushed that any general who saved him 40,000 fighting men had gained the equivalent of a victory. By August, 1941, women were operating the fire-control instruments; they were never allowed to pull the trigger, as killing the enemy was considered to be too masculine.[5] By 1943, 56,000 women were in Anti-Aircraft Command, most in units close to London where there was a risk of getting killed, but no risk of getting captured by the enemy.[4][6] The first "kill" came in April 1942.[7]

Germany

The Third Reich, contrary to popular belief, had similar roles for women. The SS-Helferinnen were regarded as part of the SS if they had undergone training at a Reichsschule SS but all other female workers were regarded as being contracted to the SS and chosen largely from concentration camps. Women also served in auxiliary units in the navy (Kriegshelferinnen), air force (Luftnachrichtenhelferinnen) and army (Nachrichtenhelferin).[8][9]

Second female to win the Iron Cross, nurse Elfriede Wnuk

In 1944-45 roughly 500,000 women were volunteer uniformed auxiliaries in the German armed forces (Wehrmacht). About the same number served in civil aerial defense, 400,000 volunteered as nurses, and many more replaced drafted men in the wartime economy.[9] In the Luftwaffe they served in combat roles helping to operate the anti—aircraft systems that shot down Allied bombers. By 1945, German women were holding 85% of the billets as clericals, accountants, interpreters, laboratory workers, and administrative workers, together with half of the clerical and junior administrative posts in high-level field headquarters.[10]

Germany had a very large and well organized nursing service, with four main organizations, one for Catholics, one for Protestants, the secular DRK (Red Cross) and the "Brown Nurses," for committed Nazi women. Military nursing was primarily handled by the DRK, which came under partial Nazi control. Frontline medical services were provided by male medics and doctors. Red Cross nurses served widely within the military medical services, staffing the hospitals that perforce were close to the front lines and at risk of bombing attacks. Two dozen were awarded the Iron Cross for heroism under fire.[8] The brief historiography focuses on the dilemmas of Brown Nurses forced to look the other way while their incapacitated patients were murdered.[11]

Hundreds of women auxiliaries (Aufseherin) served for the SS in the camps, the majority of which were at Ravensbrück. In Germany women also worked, and were told by Hitler to produce more pure Aryan children to fight in future wars.[12]

After the world wars

Congo

A Congolese female para-commando during jump training at capital Leopoldville in 1967

The Democratic Republic of the Congo began training an initial 150 women as para-commandos for the Armée Nationale Congolaise in 1967 and many more were trained subsequently, over a period of several years at least. The women did receive complete jump training as well as weapons training although it is unclear to what extent they were actually integrated into the combat units of the Congo.

Eritrea

In 1999 the BBC reported that about a quarter of the Eritrean soldiers in the Eritrean–Ethiopian War were women.[13]

Israel

A female Israeli soldier of the IDF Search and Rescue Unit

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Israel is currently the only country in the world with a mandatory military service requirement for women.[14][15][16] Mandatory conscription for single and married women without children began in 1948.[17]

Initially all women conscripts served in the Women's Army Corps, serving as clerks, drivers, welfare workers, nurses, radio operators, flight controllers, ordnance personnel, and course instructors.[18] Roles for women beyond technical and secretarial support started to open up in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[15]

In 2000, the Equality amendment to the Military Service law granted equal opportunities in the military to women found physically and personally suitable for a job. Women started to enter combat support and light combat roles in a few areas, including the Artillery Corps, infantry units and armored divisions. A few platoons named Carakal were formed for men and women to serve together in light infantry. Many women would also join the Border Police.[15]

Despite these changes, the IDF concedes that fewer than 4 percent of women are in combat positions such as infantry, crew of tanks or other armored vehicles, artillery guns service, fighter pilots, etc. Rather, they are concentrated in "combat-support".[19]

Women in combat

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Marie Marvingt was the first female pilot to fly during a wartime; she was never in combat (1912)

Some nations allow female soldiers to serve in certain combat arms positions. Others exclude them for various reasons including physical demands and privacy policies.

The United States military has most of their positions open to women.[20] There are some restrictions because of physical demands that women cannot meet such as special forces positions.

Women have been involved in the U.S. military since 1775, but more in the civilian fields of nursing, laundering and mending clothing, and cooking. Several hundred women enlisted and fought in the US Civil War, nearly all of them disguised as men, many discovered on the battlefield and in hospitals after becoming wounded.[21] In 1917 Loretta Walsh became the first woman to enlist. But it was not until 1948 that a law was finally passed that made women a permanent part of the military services. In 1976, the first group of women was admitted into a U.S. military academy.[22] Currently, approximately 16% of the graduating West Point class consists of women.[23]

In year 1990 and 1991 some 40,000 American military women were deployed during the Gulf War operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. But not one woman was able to take on any form of combat. In 1994 a policy prohibits women from being assigned to ground combat units below the brigade level.[24]

According to statistics only 15.6 percent of the U.S. Army's 1.1 million soldiers, including National Guard And Reserve, are female. Women serve in 95 percent of all army occupations.[25]

Policy changes

Prior to the 1993 Department of Defense assignment rule, 67 percent of the positions in the Army were open to women. Today, 78 percent of the positions in the Army are open to women, and women serve in 95 percent of all Army occupations (active duty and the reserve components), as of 2014.[26] In the U.S. Air Force, 99% of career fields are open to women, the only ones prohibited to women are Special Tactics Officer, Combat Control, Special Operations Weather Technician, Combat Rescue Officer, Pararescue and Tactical Air Control Party.[27]

In January 2013, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta issued an order to end the policy of "no women in units that are tasked with direct combat", though it still has yet to be determined if and when women may join the US Army's Special Forces.[28]

In 2013 female U.S Army soldiers are being asked to take part in a new training course designed by Combined Joint Task Force Paladin, which is specifically designed for Female Engagement Team members. The course will help female soldiers train for tasks such as unexploded ordnance awareness, biometrics, forensics, evidence collection, tactical questioning, vehicle and personnel searches, instructions on how homemade explosive devices are made and how to recognize if a device is homemade.[29] This change will open up hundreds of thousands of front-line positions for women. The goal is for all assessments to be complete and have women fully integrated into all roles in the army by 2016.[30]

By May 2015, all nineteen women vying to become the first female Army Rangers had failed their training at Ranger School. Eleven of the nineteen dropped out in the first four days of training. Of the remaining eight who failed in the next step, three were given the option to enroll in the course again.[31] Two of the original 19 women graduated in August 2015.[32] A third graduated in October 2015.[33]

In April 2015 after two-and-a-half year period in which the tough Marine Corps' Infantry Officer Course became gender-integrated for research ended without a single female graduate.[34] The final two participants in the Marines' experiment with training women for ground combat started and failed the IOC on April 2. Both were dropped that same day during the grueling initial Combat Endurance Test.[35]

In December 2015, Defense Secretary Ash Carter stated that starting in 2016 all combat jobs would open to women, however Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford of the Marine Corps, wanted to keep certain direct combat positions such as infantry and machine gunner closed to women.[36]

Physical, social and cultural issues

Two members of a US Marine Corps Female Engagement Team patrolling a town in Afghanistan during 2010

Many believe having both men and women in a combat unit reduces unit cohesion. Marine Corps study released in September 2015[37][38] found that women in unit created to assess how female service members perform in combat were significantly injured twice as often as men, less accurate with infantry weapons and not as good at removing wounded troops from the battlefield, according to the results of study produced by the service.[39] The research was carried out by the service in a nine-month long experiment at both Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Twentynine Palms, Calif. About 400 Marines, including 100 women, volunteered to join the Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force, the unit the Marine Corps created to compare how men and women do in a combat environment.[40]

“This is unprecedented research across the services,” said Marine Col. Anne Weinberg, the deputy director of the Marine Corps Force Innovation Office. “What we tried to get to is what is that individual’s contribution to the collective unit. We all fight as units… We’re more interested in how the Marine Corps fights as units and how that combat effectiveness is either advanced or degraded.” The Marine Corps research found that all-male squads, teams and crews demonstrated better performance on 93 of 134 tasks evaluated (69 percent) than units with women in them. Units comprising all men also were faster than units with women while completing tactical movements in combat situations, especially in units with large “crew-served” weapons like heavy machine guns and mortars, the study found. Infantry squads comprising men only also had better accuracy than squads with women in them, with “a notable difference between genders for every individual weapons system” used by infantry rifleman units. They include the M4 carbine, the M27 infantry automatic rifle and the M203, a single-shot grenade launcher mounted to rifles.[41]

The research also found that male Marines who have not received infantry training were still more accurate using firearms than women who have. And in removing wounded troops from the battlefield, there “were notable differences in execution times between all-male and gender-integrated groups,” with the exception being when a single person—”most often a male Marine” — carried someone away, the study found.[42]

There are worries about romantic or sexual relationships developing, potentially inappropriate fraternization, or that a woman might get pregnant.[citation needed] Some people are not willing to accept the risk of women being captured and tortured and possibly sexually assaulted, which happened to then-Major Rhonda Cornum.[43] Some argue that there is a shortage of male combat soldiers and that women should not be treated as second-class citizens in the military.[44]

According to Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, author of On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, Israeli soldiers reacted with uncontrollable protectiveness and aggression after seeing a woman wounded. Grossman also notes that Islamic militants rarely, if ever, surrender to female soldiers, lessening the IDF's ability to interrogate prisoners. On the other hand, Iraqi and Afghan civilians are often not intimidated by female soldiers. However, in such environments, having female soldiers serving in a combat unit does have the advantage of allowing for searches on female civilians. Children and women are more likely to talk to female soldiers than to male soldiers.[45]

Sexual assault

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Some reports show that a woman in the military is three times more likely than a woman in the general population to be raped,[46] and in Iraq are more likely to be attacked by one of their own than an insurgent.[47] There is currently a lawsuit in the US military in which the plaintiffs claim to have been subjected to sexual assaults in the military.[48] A documentary called The Invisible War has been made on this lawsuit and topic.[49] Sexual assault is often one of the most physically and mentally detrimental strains women in the military face, and often leads to the development of PTSD. [50] Research shows that sleep depravation and chronic pain are often found in women who experience sexual trauma.[51] [52] Sexual assault has been seen to affect several parts of military women’s lives. Military women who are sexual assault victims more often fail to complete college, and generally earn annual incomes less than $25,000. [53] Because this is a work environment for military women, it involves very frequent interactions with their perpetrator, and triggers a loss of trust from a personal and military perspective. Because the perpetrator is typically in a position of higher command or is one whose job is to protect the woman, this causes an increase in traumatization. [54]

Women on submarines

A female Royal Australian Navy submariner aboard HMAS Waller in 2013

In 1985 the Royal Norwegian Navy became the first [55][56] navy in the world to permit female personnel to serve in submarines, followed by the appointment of a female submarine captain in 1995.[57] The Danish Navy allowed women on submarines in 1988, the Swedish Navy in 1989,[56] followed by the Royal Australian Navy in 1998 Canada in 2000, and Spain;[58] all operators of conventional submarines.

Women serving alongside men on submarines creates the need to segregate accommodation and facilities, the U.S. Navy estimating that modifying its submarines to accommodate women would cost $300,000 per bunk versus $4,000 per bunk to allow women to serve on aircraft carriers.[59]

Recent U.S. Navy policy allowed three exceptions for women being on board military submarines: (1) female civilian technicians for a few days at most, (2) women midshipmen on an overnight during summer training for both Navy ROTC and Naval Academy, and(3) family members for one-day dependent cruises.[60]

In October 2009, the U.S. secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, announced that he and the chief of naval operations were moving aggressively to change the policy.[61] Reasons included the fact that larger SSGN and SSBN submarines now in the fleet had more available space and could accommodate female officers with little or no modification. Also, the availability of qualified female candidates with the desire to serve in this capacity was cited. It was noted that women now represented 15 percent of the active duty Navy [61] and that women today earn about half of all science and engineering bachelor's degrees. A policy change was deemed to serve the aspirations of women, the mission of the Navy, and the strength of its submarine force.[61][62]

In February 2010, the secretary of defense approved the proposed policy and signed letters formally notifying Congress of the intended change. After receiving no objection, the Department of the Navy officially announced on April 29, 2010, that it had authorized women to serve aboard submarines.[63]

The first group of U.S. female submariners completed nuclear power school and officially reported on board two ballistic and two guided missile submarines in November 2011.[64]

In 2012, it was announced that 2013 will be the first year women will serve on U.S. attack submarines.[65] On June 22, 2012, a sailor assigned to USS Ohio (SSGN 726) became the first female supply officer to qualify in U.S. submarines.[66] In 2015 the U.S. Submarine Force will begin accepting applications for the Enlisted Women in Submarines (EWIS) Initiative. This is a detailed process that will systematically place enlisted female Sailors on OHIO Class submarines. Female Sailors from all communities and ratings will be afforded the opportunity to be among the first to join the U.S. Naval Submarine Service.[67]

In May 2014, it was announced that three women had become the Royal Navy's first female submariners.[68]

Academic studies

A 2008 study by Jennifer M. Silva, a sociologist of culture and inequality (her goal is to investigate the relationship between systems of inequality), found that the female cadets saw military training as an "opportunity to be strong, assertive and skillful" and saw such training "as an escape from some of the negative aspects of traditional femininity". The female cadets also believed that the ROTC program was "gender-blind" and "gender-neutral". The study claims that female cadets "were hyper-vigilant about their status as women performing tasks traditionally seen as men's work and often felt that they had to constantly prove they were capable".

Silva's study found gender playing a role in how cadets perceive leadership, quoting one female cadet: "in the Navy the joke is that a woman in the Navy is either a bitch, a slut or a lesbian, and none of them are good categories to fall into, and if you are stern with your people then you are a bitch, but if you're a guy and stern people are like, wow, I respect him for being a good leader".

Of the female cadets Silva interviewed, 84 percent said they did not want a military career as it would interfere with being able to get married and have children.[69]

A study conducted by Matthews et al. 2009 to examine the attitudes of West Point cadets, Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadets, and non-military-affiliated students from civilian colleges toward a variety of roles that women may serve in the military. The results showed that military cadets were less approving of women being assigned to certain military jobs than non-military students.[70]

See also

Notes

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  2. Susan R. Sowers, Women Combatants in World War I: A Russian Case Study" (Strategy Research Project, U.S. Army War College, 2003) PDF
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  6. Schwarzkopf, 2009
  7. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. 8.0 8.1 Gordon Williamson, World War II German Women's Auxiliary Services (2003).
  9. 9.0 9.1 Karen Hagemann, "Mobilizing Women for War: The History, Historiography, and Memory of German Women's War Service in the Two World Wars," Journal of Military History (2011) 75#4 pp 1055-1094
  10. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. Bronwyn Rebekah McFarland-Icke, Nurses in Nazi Germany (1999)
  12. Leila J. Rupp, Mobilizing Women For War: German and American Propaganda, 1939-1945 (1979)
  13. A Quarter of Eritrean Soldiers are Women
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  18. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. Gaza: It's a Man's War The Atlantic, 7 Aug 2014
  20. http://militaro.com/army-jobs-for-women
  21. Sam Smith, "Female Soldiers in the Civil War on the front line."
  22. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. http://www.npr.org/2013/10/22/239260015/west-point-women-a-natural-pattern-or-a-camouflage-ceiling
  24. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. http://www.army.mil/women/today.html
  27. http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/2015/05/23/air-force-testing-gender-neutral-standards-in-san-antonio/27848207/
  28. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  32. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. Marines' combat test period ends without female grad accessed January 6, 2016
  35. Last IOC in Marine infantry experiment drops female officers accessed January 6, 2016
  36. http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story/military/2015/09/18/officials-marine-commandant-recommends-women-banned-some-combat-job/72421888/
  37. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  39. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  43. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  44. Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter: Remarks on Women in Combat
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  46. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  55. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  56. 56.0 56.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  57. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-5882245.html
  58. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  59. New Debate on Submarine Duty for Women Armed Forces Careers retrieved August 11, 2007
  60. Can women go on submarines? United States Navy retrieved March 27, 2008
  61. 61.0 61.1 61.2 Navy Office of Information, "Women on Submarines", Rhumblines, October 5, 2009.
  62. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  66. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  67. http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/enlisted/community/submarine/Pages/EnlistedWomeninSubmarines.aspx
  68. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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Further reading

Bibliography

History

  • Cook, Bernard, ed, (2006). Women and War: Historical Encyclopedia from Antiquity to the Present.
  • Elshtain, Jean Bethke. Women and War (1995)
  • Elshtain Jean, and Sheila Tobias, eds., Women, Militarism, and War (1990),
  • Goldman, Nancy Loring ed. (1982). Female Soldiers--Combatants or Noncombatants? Historical and Contemporary Perspectives.
  • Goldstein, Joshua S. . War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa (2003), psychology perspective
  • Hacker, Barton C. and Margaret Vining, eds. A Companion to Women's Military History (2012) 625pp; articles by scholars covering a very wide range of topics
  • Hall, Richard H. Women on the Civil War battlefront (University Press of Kansas 2006).
  • Jones, David. Women Warriors: A History, Brassey's, 1997
  • Pennington, Reina, (2003). Amazons to Fighter Pilots: A Biographical Dictionary of Military Women.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

World War II

  • Biddiscombe, Perry, (2011). "Into the Maelstrom: German Women in Combat, 1944-45," War & Society (2011), 30#1 pp 61–89
  • Bidwell, Shelford. The Women's Royal Army Corps (London, 1977) on Britain
  • Campbell, D'Ann. Women at War with America: Private Lives in a Patriotic Era (Harvard University Press, 1984). on WW2
  • Campbell, D'Ann. "Servicewomen of World War II", Armed Forces and Society (Win 1990) 16: 251-270. statistical study based on interviews
  • Campbell, D'Ann. "Women in Combat: The World War Two Experience in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union" Journal of Military History (April 1993), 57:301-323. online edition in JSTOR
  • Cottam, K. Jean Soviet Airwomen in Combat in World War II (Manhattan, KS: Military Affairs/Aerospace Historian Publishing, 1983)
  • DeGroot G.J. "Whose Finger on the Trigger? Mixed Anti-Aircraft Batteries and the Female Combat Taboo," War in History, Volume 4, Number 4, December 1997, pp. 434–453
  • Dombrowski, Nicole Ann. Women and War in the Twentieth Century: Enlisted With or Without Consent (1999)
  • Dominé, Jean-François, (2008). Les femmes au combat ; l'arme féminine de la France pendant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale
  • Hagemann, Karen, (2011). "Mobilizing Women for War: The History, Historiography, and Memory of German Women's War Service in the Two World Wars," Journal of Military History 75:3 (2011): 1055-1093
  • Harfield, Alan, (2005). "The Women's Auxiliary Corps (India)", Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 83, no 335, 243-254.
  • Krylova, Anna, (2010). Soviet Women in Combat: A History of Violence on the Eastern Front.
  • Morton, Alison. Military or civilians? The curious anomaly of the German Women's Auxiliary Services during the Second World War. 2012. ASIN B007JUR408
  • Markwick, Roger D. (2008). "A Sacred Duty": Red Army Women Veterans Remembering the Great Fatherland War, 1941-1945," Australian Journal of Politics & History, (2008), 54#3 pp. 403-420.
  • Maubach, Franka; Satjukow, Silke. (2009). "Zwischen Emanzipation und Trauma: Soldatinnen im Zweiten Weltkrieg (Deutschland, Sowjetunion, USA)" Historische Zeitschrift, (April 2009), Vol. 288 Issue 2, pp 347–384
  • Merry, Lois K, (2010). Women Military Pilots of World War II: A History with Biographies of American, British, Russian and German Aviators.
  • Pennington, Reina, (2007). Wings, Women & War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat
  • Pennington, Reina, (2010). "Offensive Women: Women in Combat in the Red Army in the Second World War" Journal of Military History, July 2010, Vol. 74 Issue 3, p775-820
  • Pierson, Ruth Roach. (1986). They're Still Women After All: The Second World War and Canadian Womanhood.
  • McBryde, Brenda. (1985). Quiet Heroines: Story of the Nurses of the Second World War, on British
  • Sarnecky, Mary T. (1999). A History of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps
  • Schwarzkopf, Jutta, (2009). "Combatant or Non-Combatant? The Ambiguous Status of Women in British Anti-Aircraft Batteries during the Second World War." War & Society, 28#2 pp 105–131
  • Toman, Cynthia, (2007). An Officer and a Lady: Canadian Military Nursing and the Second World War.
  • Treadwell, Mattie E. (1954). United States Army in World War II: Special Studies: The Women's Army Corps. the standard history; part of the Army "Green series" online free
  • Williamson, Gordon, (2003). World War II German Women's Auxiliary Services

Recent

  • Campbell, D'Ann. (2012) "Almost Integrated? American Servicewomen and Their International Sisters Since World War II" in A Companion to Women's Military History ed by Barton C. Hacker and Margaret Vining pp 291–330
  • Carreiras, Helena. Gender and the military: women in the armed forces of Western democracies (New York: Routledge, 2006)
  • Carreiras, Helena and Gerhard Kammel (eds.) Women in the Military and in Armed Conflict (2008) excerpt and text search
  • Dandeker, Christopher, and Mady Wechsler Segal. "Gender integration in armed forces: recent policy developments in the United Kingdom" Armed Forces & Society 23#1 (Fall 1996): 29-47.
  • Eulriet, Irène. Women and the military in Europe: comparing public cultures (New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2009)
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  • Frank, Nathaniel et al. eds. Gays in foreign militaries 2010: A global primer (Santa Barbara, CA: Palm Center, 2010)
  • Garcia, Sarah. (1999) “Military women in the NATO armed forces,” Minerva: Quarterly Report on Women and the Military (1999) 17#2 : 33-82.
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  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.; women from the United States
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