Women and the Armed Forces
Women and the Armed Forces: Laurie Taylor explores gender and the military in the light of the US decision to allow women into the frontline of battle.
Women in combat - the US secretary of defence announced in January 2013 that, from 2016, women will be allowed to serve in ground-combat roles in the US armed forces. The UK is likely to soon be faced with the need to make a similarly historic decision.
Laurie Taylor talks to Anthony King, Professor in Sociology at the University of Exeter; Christopher Coker, Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Joanna Bourke, Professor of History at Birkbeck College.
This special programme explores the history of the female soldier and the implications of women's increasing involvement on the 'frontline'. How central is war to cultural definitions of masculinity and femininity? Is there something stubbornly masculine at the centre of the dominant, military ethos with its emphasis on courage, honour and valour? Or are these questions becoming redundant as the nature of war itself changes, so that an emphasis on the winning of' hearts and minds' in the Afghanistan context and elsewhere, could be said to signify a feminisation of war? And is the growth in technology assisted warfare actually sidelining the 'human' altogether, regardless of gender.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
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Anthony King
Professor of Sociology, University of Exeter
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The Transformation of Europe's Armed Forces: from the Rhine to AfghanistanPublisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN-10: 0521760941
ISBN-13: 978-0521760942
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Christopher Coker
Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics
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Warrior geeks: how 21st century technology is changing the way we fight and think about warPublisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd
ISBN-10: 1849042543
ISBN-13: 978-1849042543
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Men at War: What Fiction Tells Us About Conflict, from Achilles to Flashman
Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd (27 Jun 2013)
ISBN-10: 1849042896
ISBN-13: 978-1849042895
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Joanna Bourke
Professor of History at Brikbeck College
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What It Means To Be Human: Reflections from 1791 to the presentPublisher: Virago
ISBN-10: 1844086453
ISBN-13: 978-1844086450
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An Intimate History Of Killing: Face To Face Killing In Twentieth Century WarfarePublisher: Basic Books
ISBN-10: 0465007384
ISBN-13: 978-0465007387
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– articles and essays by Joanna Bourke
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- Wed 3 Apr 2013 16:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
- Mon 8 Apr 2013 00:15Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
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