Women and war

Abstract

As the pursuit of war becomes more and more irrational, it is important to consider whether women (or any other group) are likely to offer effective resistance to the war-like inclinations of their governments and societies. In this paper I examine, first of all, how the exclusion of women from warfare affects and is affected by the status of the warrior and the status of women; how the activities and opportunities of women have been influenced by changes in the nature of war; and how these changes affect the attitudes of women to war and of society toward women. Are there deeper psychological forces and inclinations that affect the way women and men react to war? I consider this question in light of Freud's theory of group psychology, and argue that the changing relations between men and women, changes that have in part been brought about by war, could help to make group behavior more rational and thus have a pacifying effect on the politics of societies.