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May 28, 2015 · In counterinsurgency theory the “population is the prize.” Winning hearts and minds and protecting civilians now played a key role in America’s military strategy, but both would be undermined if American men searched Afghan women. And there was another important cultural reality in play.
- Overview
- independence warriors
- Rising up the Ranks
- refusing to yield
- Armed Guardians
- drafted defenders
Females are taking more active roles in militaries, serving on the front lines of armed conflicts and as peacekeepers in the world‘s hot spots.
This story is part of our November 2019 special issue of National Geographic magazine, “Women: A Century of Change.” Read more stories here.
In a desert town in east-central Syria, two prisoners sat on the ground, guarded by about a dozen Kurdish men. The two had surrendered to the mostly Kurdish defense force, YPG, as it routed ISIS fighters from Baghouz, their last stronghold in Syria. The prisoners awaited transport to a detention camp that already held tens of thousands of ISIS loyalists and dependents. The guards stood over them, their triumph palpable.
A few hundred feet away, female Kurdish fighters with AK-47s over their shoulders guarded women and children, presumably militants’ wives and offspring. As these fighters, known as YPJ, chatted, several took long drags on their cigarettes (it had been forbidden for women to smoke under ISIS). Others adjusted their hair using their cell phones as mirrors (under ISIS, a woman who hadn’t kept her hair and face covered would have been whipped). Occasionally a YPJ woman spoke to the veiled women, a sea of black cloth punctuated by wary eyes and filthy children.
As the morning dragged on, some YPJ fighters decided to see the enemy up close. The women approached the two prisoners almost casually at first. Then, slowly and deliberately, they walked a tight circle around the men, staring straight at them. Not long ago in this town, a woman could have been executed for such behavior. But ISIS had fallen, and the female defenders of Kurdish Syria were claiming equal footing with their male comrades. They were on the front lines together, savoring victory.
From the desert of Syria and the grasslands of South Sudan to the war-torn jungle in western Colombia, growing numbers of women are serving on the front lines of military conflicts. Their uniforms and circumstances differ, but they cite similar reasons for joining armed forces. They want to serve their country. They want to show confidence, competence, and strength, setting an example for their children while proving something to themselves. Some mention a larger purpose that their male counterparts do not: They want to make life better specifically for women and girls—in their country, the region, and the world.
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SYRIA Lifting a child while working crowd control, a Kurdish security force commander, Sheikha Ibrahim, 33, picks her way through throngs of refugees at the al-Hol camp in northern Syria. Kurds run the camp, which has taken in thousands of women, many of them with children, as they surrendered or fled from ISIS strongholds.
SYRIA Lifting a child while working crowd control, a Kurdish security force commander, Sheikha Ibrahim, 33, picks her way through throngs of refugees at the al-Hol camp in northern Syria. Kurds run the camp, which has taken in thousands of women, many of them with children, as they surrendered or fled from ISIS strongholds.
At least 16 industrialized nations permit women to serve in frontline or combat roles. Women have served as an official part of the U.S. military in noncombat—but nonetheless dangerous—roles since Congress established the Army Nurse Corps in 1901. In addition to working as nurses, they were radio operators and logistical staff and, more recently, helicopter pilots and tank mechanics.
Even when policy allows women in combat roles, commanders may blanch at sending them. But in this era of terrorist attacks and ethnic clashes, women serving anywhere “can find themselves in combat, because the battlefield is nonlinear,” says Marine Lt. Col. Misty Posey, commander of female marine recruits at Parris Island, South Carolina, for two years, until mid-2019. “If you’re admin, if you’re supply, you could be in combat. And they all know that.”
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UNITED STATES As their boot camp at South Carolina’s Parris Island culminates in a ferocious finale, 20-year-old Desiree White plays a wounded marine being rescued by fellow recruits. This extra-intense stretch of training, required of male and female USMC recruits, has a special name: the Crucible.
UNITED STATES As their boot camp at South Carolina’s Parris Island culminates in a ferocious finale, 20-year-old Desiree White plays a wounded marine being rescued by fellow recruits. This extra-intense stretch of training, required of male and female USMC recruits, has a special name: the Crucible.
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COLOMBIA In an improvised community center near her ELN training camp, Comandante Yesenia takes a refresher break after a village meeting. Despite accusations that they sometimes extort and bully villagers, and traffic drugs, the fighters say they bring money and medical help to otherwise neglected villages and that locals return the favor by warning when government soldiers are nearby.
COLOMBIA In an improvised community center near her ELN training camp, Comandante Yesenia takes a refresher break after a village meeting. Despite accusations that they sometimes extort and bully villagers, and traffic drugs, the fighters say they bring money and medical help to otherwise neglected villages and that locals return the favor by warning when government soldiers are nearby.
Israel
Israel is one of fewer than a dozen countries (the list includes North Korea and Norway) that draft both women and men into military service. Women have been active in national defense since the 1948 founding of modern Israel; exemptions are offered for reasons like motherhood or religious conviction, but otherwise, two years’ service is expected, a little less than the time required for men. Controversy continues about the extent of gender mixing in the Israeli services and which roles women can fill. Patrolling borders, for example: Yes. Driving tanks: No. Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
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ISRAEL With soldier training and immediate arrest authority, Israeli border police stay on high alert for hostilities. At this West Bank checkpoint in Hebron, where a tiny Jewish population lives among more than 200,000 Palestinians, 20-year-old Yuval Binyamin (in sunglasses) orders a young Palestinian to show he’s hiding no weapons beneath his shirt.
ISRAEL With soldier training and immediate arrest authority, Israeli border police stay on high alert for hostilities. At this West Bank checkpoint in Hebron, where a tiny Jewish population lives among more than 200,000 Palestinians, 20-year-old Yuval Binyamin (in sunglasses) orders a young Palestinian to show he’s hiding no weapons beneath his shirt.
Jun 29, 2023 · They didn’t see women in the thick of battle, fighting alongside men – most often disguised as men, occasionally in their own right, and sometimes (but rarely) even leading those men. Women...
- Sarah Percy
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Jan 25, 2013 · January 25, 2013 • Updated March 18, 2024. The outbreak of the Civil War challenged traditional American notions of feminine submissiveness and domesticity with hundreds of examples of courage, diligence, and self-sacrifice in battle. The war was a formative moment in the early feminist movement.
Jun 29, 2018 · Women have always had a role in the United States’ military conflicts, from the prostitutes who followed the Continental Army, to washerwomen and medical caregivers in the Revolutionary War to...
Oct 28, 2023 · We thank, we honour and we remember. Strange then, that there is one class of combatant for whom historians have long held scant regard. Women have led armies, sparked insurrections and successfully repelled invasions — yet their military contributions throughout history have largely been ignored.
Mar 21, 2023 · During the war, women played crucial roles under fire alongside their male counterparts, including intelligence-gathering, medical aid, being deployed with the national guard, the military police...