The presence of women combatants on the battlefield—especially in large numbers—strikes many observers as a notable departure from the historical norm. Yet women have played a significant active role in many contemporary armed rebellions. Over recent decades, numerous resistance movements in many regions of the globe have deployed thousands of female fighters in combat.
In Female Fighters, Reed M. Wood explains why some rebel groups deploy women in combat while others exclude women from their ranks, and the strategic implications of this decision. Examining a vast original dataset on female fighters in over 250 rebel organizations, Wood argues rebel groups can gain considerable strategic advantages by including women fighters. Drawing on women increases the pool of available recruits and helps ameliorate resource constraints. Furthermore, the visible presence of female fighters often becomes an important propaganda tool for domestic and international audiences. Images of women combatants help raise a group's visibility, boost local recruitment, and aid the group's efforts to solicit support from transnational actors and diaspora communities. However, Wood finds that, regardless of the wartime resource challenges they face, religious fundamentalist rebels consistently resist utilizing female fighters. A rich, data-driven study, Female Fighters presents a systematic, comprehensive analysis of the impact women's participation has on organized political violence in the modern era.
Industry Reviews
In this important book, Reed M. Wood builds on feminist scholarship to explain why some rebel groups recruit female fighters while others do not. He finds that secular armed groups overlook traditional gender norms and recruit a higher number of women for combat roles when they face sudden resource constraints. Such decisions often have strategic benefits for rebel groups, yielding greater recruitment overall and eliciting higher levels of support from abroad. Wood shores up an impressive amount of theoretical and empirical evidence to support this argument. An impressive, persuasive read.
