War is a man’s game—or so goes the standard wisdom. But from the beginning of recorded history, women have played an integral part in war: leaders to warriors, resistance fighters to resisters, providers-of-aid to aides-de-camp. This encyclopedia covers the entire range of women’s role in war and battle.
This authoritative encyclopedia presents the work of leading scholars from all over the world to give the first detailed coverage of the role of women in wars throughout history. Histories of war are typically histories of men: great leaders and heroic fighters. Yet the roles of women often receive only limited coverage.
Except for such notables as Joan of Arc, traditional histories give short shrift to women as leaders and fighters. Similarly, the direct victimization—particularly sexual abuse as a weapon of terror and domination—and cultural dislocations women suffer in war float as background, without detailed coverage. This work represents a first, devoted in its entirety to thorough examination of all aspects of women in war. For the first time, readers have a single source for information on the scope of women’s role in war, and war’s effects on them.
