Femme Fatale: Examination of the Role of Women in Combat and the Policy Implications for Future American Military Operations - World War II Female Fighters, Soviet Fliers, Islamic Terrorists, Shahida

This excellent report, professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction, reviews four case studies that demonstrate the variety of ways women have participated in modern armed conflict and explores whether current US laws and policies excluding women from combat remain valid or need to be amended. Each case study examines three principal facets of female participation in combat: context, motivations and inspirations, and the actual contributions made by these women in combat operations. Two case studies, one on World War II Soviet pilots and the other on modern Americans, follow the more traditional explanation of armed conflict and focus on women integrated into military organizations involved in wars. The other two case studies, including one on female resistance fighters in World War II Europe and another on female terrorists and insurgents, represent the asymmetric aspects female participation often provides during conflicts.

The first case study examines the women involved in resistance operations throughout Nazi-occupied Europe. Contextually, many of the women presented in this case study had experienced or had close family to live through World War I. That experience evoked strong emotional motivations for many of the women profiled and often resulted in intense hatred of their enemies, the German Nazis. The second case focuses on the three female flying units created by Joseph Stalin shortly after Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union. Similar to the female communists in resistance movements elsewhere in Europe, the story of female Soviet pilots demonstrates the complexity surrounding a political ideology that promotes equality among the genders yet continues to enforce patriarchal expectations of the role and behavior of women. The third case study examines the roles of women in more recent insurgencies, what many would call terrorist operations. For the most part, these women fulfill the role of suicide bombers used by many terrorist organizations to conduct their wars; however, the startling fact remains that all of these women come from very conservative and patriarchal societies. The use of female combatants by America's enemies has also accelerated shifts in American military culture as well. The fourth case study examines how the US military evolved from a conscript force into the all-volunteer force that depends on female participation for mission accomplishment. The fourth case study also serves as the heart of this research paper since it focuses on the role of American women in combat. Current policies actually limit the combat roles available to women and spur some critics to argue the combat exclusion policies do not go far enough. The fifth chapter of this paper presents this side of the debate over the role of women in combat and military service in general.

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION * CHAPTER 2 - THE FEMALE FIGHTERS OF WORLD WAR II * CHAPTER 3 - THE SOVIET FEMALE FLIERS OF WORLD WAR II * CHAPTER 4 - SHAHIDA IN A BRAVE NEW WORLD * CHAPTER 5 - AMERICAN WOMEN AT WAR * CHAPTER 6 - THE WAY BACKWARD * CHAPTER 7 - THE WAY FORWARD * CHAPTER 8 - CONCLUSION