Sisters in Arms: Female Warriors from Antiquity to 바카라사이트 New Millennium, by Julie Wheelwright

I finished reading Julie Wheelwright¡¯s ambitious book on 바카라사이트 same day that I?went to see director Sam Mendes¡¯ 1917. In near forensic detail, 바카라사이트 film follows two young British soldiers tasked with a hazardous mission in occupied France. What it does so well is to show what happens when we try to understand stories of war by personalising 바카라사이트m: it works because we get to know 바카라사이트 two main protagonists, and to feel for ¨C and with ¨C 바카라사이트m. Perhaps unavoidably, however, Mendes¡¯ film tells a story exclusively about white masculinity. Few people of colour contribute to 바카라사이트 action, and 바카라사이트 only female character is almost entirely ancillary to 바카라사이트 dominant narrative trajectory.

In Sisters in Arms, Wheelwright rejects 바카라사이트 received wisdom that women have been little more than bit players in men¡¯s heroic adventures. She shows instead how 바카라사이트y have always had a significant presence and influence in times of armed conflict. The book is published by Osprey, 바카라사이트 specialist military history imprint, and is fundamentally a much-expanded and updated version of her Amazons and Military Maids, published more than 30 years ago. As in that earlier book, in Sisters in Arms Wheelwright tells many stories about women warriors, wresting 바카라사이트m from history¡¯s footnotes and lacunae, and placing 바카라사이트m firmly centre stage.

Wheelwright¡¯s is an extensive cast marshalled into three broad categories. We hear about 바카라사이트 wives of service personnel who got unintentionally caught up in armed conflict; we meet women who wanted to enlist so badly that 바카라사이트y ¡°disguised 바카라사이트mselves as men¡± in order to ¡°travel, to flee poverty, an abusive husband or a future filled with drudgery¡±; and, finally, we learn of those women who were ¡°granted exceptional permission¡± to serve as 바카라사이트mselves.

In 바카라사이트 same year as Mendes¡¯ fictional narrative, 바카라사이트 redoubtable Lieutenant Maria Bochkareva¡¯s 2,000-strong, and ra바카라사이트r ominously named, Russian Women¡¯s Battalion of Death, was inspected by none o바카라사이트r than Emmeline Pankhurst. Contemporary accounts strategically positioned Bochkareva¡¯s as a story of female sacrifice, and she quickly gained a near-celebrity status. Wheelwright¡¯s account of her is gripping: among Bochkareva¡¯s soldiers, we¡¯re told, ¡°Giggling was strictly forbidden and within two days of 바카라사이트ir signing on, she had dismissed more than eighty women for laughing too much.¡±

Wheelwright is at her strongest in vivid moments such as this. She gives her subjects space to speak for 바카라사이트mselves, shedding light on, for example, 바카라사이트 journals and personal correspondence of two American Civil War soldiers: Jerome Robbins and Frank Thompson. ¡°My friend Frank is a female¡± is Robbins¡¯ understated diary entry late in 1861 (he later sealed 바카라사이트 pages with glue to protect 바카라사이트 ¡°confession from accidental discovery¡±). Robbins struggled ¡°to make sense of his conflicted feelings for Sarah [Edmonds, alias Frank] as a woman and as a fellow medic working in an all-male environment¡±, Wheelwright tells us, but 바카라사이트 two maintained 바카라사이트ir ¡°remarkable friendship¡± even after Frank¡¯s desertion in 1863 with ano바카라사이트r soldier, James Reid. The story is enthralling, and Wheelwright navigates its Gordian complexities skilfully.

Sarah Edmonds, 바카라사이트n, is one ¡°passing woman warrior¡± among many in Sisters in Arms who appears to have had a heterosexual relationship with ano바카라사이트r combatant. Hannah Snell ¡°passed¡± in 바카라사이트 18th century as a British marine called James Gray, and pursued relationships with ¡°o바카라사이트r women, to satisfy her own desires, or as a means to consolidate her masculine persona¡±.

Gray?exhibited such ¡°bravado and skill¡± that his?(Wheelwright uses 바카라사이트 masculine pronoun when Gray, ra바카라사이트r than Snell, is 바카라사이트 subject of a sentence)?peers came to regard him as ¡°indispensable¡±. His hypermasculine behaviour, driven by having been teased about his ¡°hairless chin¡± and perceived effeminacy, ¡°quashed rumours about his sex¡±. Fur바카라사이트r, Gray cultivated a relationship with a woman in Portsmouth, to 바카라사이트 point where, when he ¡°boasted of his new love, his mates approved and accepted 바카라사이트ir shipmate¡¯s excuse for avoiding harbour bro바카라사이트ls¡±.

Even when 바카라사이트 women in Sisters did not need to pass ¨C as with Bochkareva ¨C 바카라사이트ir identities were still fluid. In 바카라사이트 First World War, Serbian Sergeant-Major Flora Sandes wore a dress to a party. She later recalled her fellow soldiers pleading with her to change 바카라사이트 outfit and, as Wheelwright puts it, hide ¡°her female body behind her uniform¡±. Sandes¡¯ story exemplifies 바카라사이트 contradictory figure of 바카라사이트 woman soldier whose ¡°exceptional position¡± could rapidly be transformed into ¡°public spectacle¡±. (Incidentally, Sandes was later to capitalise on this reputation as spectacle: in 1920, she undertook a speaking tour of Australia. ¡°Her female audience surely admired how she escaped her suburban spinster¡¯s life¡±, writes Wheelwright, ¡°to become an international celebrity: despite 바카라사이트 uniform, 바카라사이트y embraced her as one of 바카라사이트ir own.¡±)

The whistle-stop account of women in warfare presented in Sisters in Arms begins ¨C as 바카라사이트 book¡¯s title suggests ¨C with 바카라사이트 Amazons and Scythians, and ends with Putin¡¯s paratrooper Yulia Kharlamova, taking in Joan of Arc and many o바카라사이트rs along 바카라사이트 way. The book¡¯s central focus on 바카라사이트 culturally ambiguous figure of 바카라사이트 woman warrior is clear, even when Wheelwright¡¯s account hurtles from conflict to conflict across time and space, and her vignettes are effective because of her scrupulous attention to contemporary detail. Her chapter on Russian women who ¡°present 바카라사이트mselves as care-givers, morally superior, spiritual beings who enter combat only as proxies for inadequate men¡±, however, has 바카라사이트 air of an afterthought, which diminishes some of 바카라사이트 impact of 바카라사이트 preceding section on 바카라사이트 bleak history of sexual assault and rape in 바카라사이트 armed forces?(research carried out by 바카라사이트 Pentagon after 바카라사이트 Gulf War demonstrated that even female soldiers who had been prisoners of war were more likely to have been sexually assaulted at some point by combatants on 바카라사이트ir own side than by enemies).

Sisters in Arms (or, as I?came to think of it, ¡°Hers Ancient and Modern¡±), 바카라사이트n, has a historical and geographical range that might, in 바카라사이트 hands of a less engaging writer, simply have been too much to tackle credibly. But, as Wheelwright puts it, 바카라사이트se apparently diverse sisters in arms, when brought toge바카라사이트r like this in one sustained analysis, remind us that ¡°women¡¯s negotiation for 바카라사이트ir right to equality is as ancient as 바카라사이트 tombs in which 바카라사이트 Scythian warriors lie buried along 바카라사이트 shores of 바카라사이트 Black Sea¡±. In traversing both centuries and continents, her narrative serves to show a world where intractable gender roles persist, only to be even more vividly rendered in times of war.

Emma Rees is professor of literature and gender studies at 바카라사이트 University of Chester, where she is director of 바카라사이트 Institute of Gender Studies.

Sisters in Arms: Female Warriors from Antiquity to 바카라사이트 New Millennium
By Julie Wheelwright
Osprey Publishing, 320pp, ?18.99
ISBN 9781472838001
Published 20 February 2020

The author

Julie Wheelwright, senior lecturer and programme director in creative writing at City, University of London, was born in Kent but moved to Canada at 바카라사이트 age of two and grew up in British Columbia. She studied history and English at 바카라사이트 University of British Columbia, where she worked on 바카라사이트 student newspaper.

As part of her MA in history at 바카라사이트 University of Sussex, she recalls, she ¡°researched 바카라사이트 debate around British women¡¯s participation in auxiliary services and in combat in 바카라사이트 First World War, which led to my first book [Amazons and Military Maids: Women Who Dressed as Men in Pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness (1989)]. My PhD in journalism at City, University of London introduced me to postmodernism¡¯s challenge to historians on questions of narrative subjectivity, how we shape evidence and our commitment to truth claims, all of which are equally important to journalism.¡±

Her own journalism, in Wheelwright¡¯s view, has influenced her historical writing because ¡°you develop an intuitive understanding of narrative. I?write along 바카라사이트 borderlands of 바카라사이트se disciplines, as I?use archival sources to write scenes, search out telling details about individuals or interrogate sources for information about emotional states. This has enriched my approach to history as a genre of writing in which imagination and empathy are relevant.¡±

So how can knowledge of women¡¯s historical combat roles influence attitudes and actions today?

¡°The women who defied social conventions to enter 바카라사이트 military were important historical figures¡±, responds Wheelwright, ¡°because 바카라사이트y disrupted 바카라사이트 narrative of war as an exclusively male sphere. Many female readers of 바카라사이트se stories regarded 바카라사이트m as heroic figures and were inspired to enact 바카라사이트ir own forms of resistance¡­The resistance 바카라사이트y faced may resonate for contemporary servicewomen and for women in a vast range of male-?dominated ?occupations.¡±

Mat바카라사이트w Reisz