Between Amazons and Sabines: a historical approach to women and war

Abstract

Ire' ne Herrmann is associate professor of modern history at the University of Fribourg and lecturer of Swiss history at the University of Geneva. Daniel Palmieri is historical research officer at the ICRC. AbstractToday, war is still perceived as being the prerogative of men only. Women are generally excluded from the debate on belligerence, except as passive victims of the brutality inflicted on them by their masculine contemporaries. Yet history shows that through the ages, women have also played a role in armed hostilities, and have sometimes even been the main protagonists. In the present article, the long history and the multiple facets of women's involvement in war are recounted from two angles: women at war (participating in war) and women in war (affected by war). The merit of a genderbased division of roles in war is then examined with reference to the ancestral practice of armed violence.Since time immemorial, war has been an integral part of the history of humankind. 1 Yet this age-old activity seems to have been the preserve of only part of humankind, since war is still perceived as being essentially a male affair. Many arguments have been put forward to explain this male predominance. 'Innate violence', 'the predator instinct', or even 'the death wish', traits believed to be particularly developed in men, are said to explain their propensity to go to war. Cultural traditions which instil the cult of war into boys from an early

Appetitive Aggression and Adverse Childhood Experiences Shape Violent Behavior in Females Formerly Associated with Combat

“…The majority of studies focusing on the relationship between combat exposure and ongoing violence in post-conflict regions almost exclusively focused on male combatants or soldiers ( McKay and Mazurana, 2004 ; Coulter et al, 2008 ; Herrmann and Palmieri, 2010 ). However, studies indicate that females in conflict regions are also active agents of warfare and make up a proportion to 30% of members of armed groups ( Brett, 2002 ; Mazurana, 2004 ).…”

Feminist perspectives on the history of humanitarian relief (1870–1945)

“…For some time, Feminist scholars and activists have denounced the 'patriarchal contours, racist governing suppositions, and colonialist genealogies', in which NGO discourse is based (Martínez and Libal 2014;Chackravorty Spivack 2004). Indeed, the very nature of the patriarchal system explains why 'the symbiosis between the terms of war, humanity and femininity' has not been achieved within organizations such as the ICRC where women seldom occupy management positions (Palmieri 2006, 190;Herrmann and Palmieri 2010). Yet women have always contributed to humanitarian efforts, providing health-care assistance in the field, especially during the World Wars when they were mobilized en masse as nurses by Red Cross national societies (Hutchinson 1996).…”

Women, body and war: Kurdish female fighters through Commander Arian and Girls’ War

“…The relationship of women and war can be conceived from two different perspectives. According to the proposals of Herrmann and Palmieri (2010), women can be seen either as Amazons or as Sabines (i.e. as victims or as active participants).…”

“…Woman’s emancipation during the 20th century in Western countries is seen as a partial consequence of their participation in the two World Wars (Carter, 1996). However, most literature disputes the transformation of the gender power balance due to the inclusion of women as combatants (Bucaille, 2013; Enloe, 1983; Herrmann and Palmieri, 2010; Tavera, 2016). Most of the women soldiers interviewed by Sasson-Levy in her research on the Israeli army referred to as ‘jokes’ or trivial ‘just kidding’ incidents some stories that could well be termed sexual harassment (Sasson-Levy, 2003).…”