Dynamic Observation of the American Women and the Military, War and Peace

Abstract

Waves of American women’s movements for reaching changes in their economic, social, and political lives started two centuries ago and were full of turbulences. The role of women in the military has a long history as well. Although the great majority of the U.S. military personnel have always been male, the military has needed and continues to need women’s support and participation in many capacities. Starting from the Revolutionary War, the American women actively got involved in all the wars, but historically women’s saliency in all XVIII-XX wars, would be substituted by their quiescence in the post-war periods, as a result of men’s stereotypical attitude towards women’s role which relegated them to the household chores. Alternatively, women’s participation and contribution to the wars changed their self-images, and led them to expect equal treatment after the war as well. Men’s patriarchal bias towards women’s role was so strong, that it took several centuries, several wars to reach progress in the military and peace.
Keywords: equal, post-war, military, combat