Introduction
The story of women during conflict is usually replete with experiences of the vulnerable, weak, and abused. Combats are presented as men’s world, with armed male soldiers in drills and daredevil assaults against the enemy, or succumbing to superior firepower from their opponents. Most often, there is palpable silence on women at arms; female comrades in combat and with battle skills comparable and sometimes superior to those of their male counterparts. Women have served as combatants and commanders from time immemorial, and in contemporary times, nations are increasingly evolving women combat units along with those that are primarily armed and unarmed support units. This chapter discusses women in combat with a primary focus on the precolonial Dahomey Amazons, World War II women in action and women revolutionaries in African, Asian, and South American Battlefields in the contemporary period. It also reflects on women in combat as dimensions of work, self-preservation, and...
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Omobowale, A.O., Wale-Oshinowo, B., Seymour, M. (2023). Women in Combat. In: Romaniuk, S.N., Marton, P.N. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Security Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74319-6_153
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