A Negotiated Gender Order: British Army Control of Servicewomen in ‘Front Line’ Counterinsurgency, 1948–2014

Abstract

This conceptual paper critically analyses how the British Army exercises control over the production of knowledge about women’s war labour in ‘front line combat’ and how women exert agency to resist this. 2018 saw all British military roles opened to women, yet it is a myth to say that women are only now able to serve in ‘front line combat’. The paper reveals a complex negotiated gender order or ‘bargain’ between the British Army and servicewomen seeing the latter controlled through their co-option, embodied by compliant military femininities, whilst permitting them some agency to resist. Driven by military need, sustaining this ordering has repeatedly seen women exposed to unnecessary risk. This critical feminist history contributes to conceptual development through deconstructing gendered knowledge systems, arguing that foregrounding women’s voices is central to furthering the cultural turn in war studies.