Joshua S. Goldstein

Author looks at how society's perceptions of gender often change during wartime and why this happens. Author looks at the history of women who fought in previous wars and explains why women today are still denied combat roles. He adopts an even-handed, scholarly approach to a contentious subject. Best examples of large numbers of officially organized women in combat Dahomey (1600s and 1700s) and the Soviet Union World War II. This will become a valuable reference book.

The writing tends to be a bit dry in parts, but the concepts are presented in a logic manner and are often tied together forming a bigger picture. This version was up to date as of the beginning of 2009.