Women and War

A woman's perspective of war has, historically, not been that of the battlefield or the front line. Many countries barred women from combat situations until the latter part of the twentieth century. As of 2005 in the United States, women are still excluded from direct ground combat, though they may participate in companies that support combat battalions.

One of the most common ways women have participated in war is as the family breadwinner while the men are away. In wartime, women have maintained family farms and worked in factories, often earning more money than they ever earned before. The flip side of this was their implicit duty to wait for the men—their husbands, their brothers, their sons—to return. The wait, especially before long-distance communication was possible, was fraught with dread, anticipation, and anxiety. Generations of war widows were created when the men did not return...