SISTERS IN ARMS: Female Warriors

Western culture has a popular tradition of women who dressed as men and joined the military, often immortalised in books or on stage and screen. Julie Wheelwright soon discovered many of these accounts are highly fictionalised and the real experience of warrior women was frequently one of isolation as they strove to maintain their disguise or, latterly, having to prove their worth against the men in a mixed regiment. 'She brings their temperaments, talents, fancies, and foibles to life.' - Professor Joanna Bourke, Birkbeck, University of London. Sisters in Arms charts the evolution of women in combat, from the Scythian warriors who inspired the Amazonian myth, to the passing soldiers and sailors of the eighteenth century, and on to the re-emergence of women as official members of the armed forces in the twentieth century. The female warrior often endured judgement and poverty and although some managed to fight for a pension, make a living from memoirs or settle back into domestic life, the majority faced hardship, obscurity and worse. Wheelwright uses verifiable official documents, diaries, letters and memoirs from the mid-18th century on as she follows the evolution of women in combat, both clandestine and as recognised soldiers, and shows us shocking parallels between the two experiences, such as the fight for acceptance, for equal pay and against the threat of sexual assault, which both how much and how little things have changed. 16 pages of excellent b/w plates, 320pp.