War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa [Paperback]

Joshua S. Goldstein (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521001803 | ISBN-13: 978-0521001809 | Publication Date: August 18, 2003

Gender roles are nowhere more prominent than in war, yet our understanding of the relationship between gender and war is confused. Joshua Goldstein analyzes the near-total exclusion of women from combat forces, through history and across cultures. He concludes that killing in war does not come naturally for either gender, and that gender norms often mold men, women, and children to the needs of the war system.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Goldstein has amassed a huge array of research, literature and anecdote in this comprehensive, cohesive overview of dozens of subtopics, from myths of Amazon warriors to changes in the design of GI Joe dolls over the decades." Publishers Weekly

"...a fascinating book about an important issue. I thoroughly recommend it to everyone who has an interest in why we humans behave the way we do." Jane Goodall, primatologist, The Jane Goodall Institute

Book Description

Gender roles are nowhere more prominent than in war, yet our understanding of how gender affects war and vice versa is confused. In this definitive and lively book, Joshua Goldstein seeks to explain the near-total exclusion of women from combat forces, through history and across cultures. He concludes that killing in war does not come naturally for either gender, and that gender norms often shape men, women, and children to the needs of the war system. This unique study is illustrated throughout with photographs, drawings, and graphics.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 540 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (August 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521001803
• ISBN-13: 978-0521001809
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #360,347 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joshua S. Goldstein is a professor at the School of International Service at American University, winner of the International Studies Association "Book of the Decade" award, among others, author of International Relations (10th edition), and a research scholar at the University of Massachusetts. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. His new book, Winning the War on War (Dutton, Sept. 2011), shows that despite the gory headlines the decade since 9/11 has been the most peaceful worldwide in a century.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Overview of Gender Issues, January 31, 2008

By 

H. Campbell (houston, texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa (Paperback)

This book, though primarily focused on the issue of the warmaking propensities of the genders, is actually a sound overall assessment of gender culture, history and sociology. The author's (Mr. Goldstein) feminist bias is evident but he makes unfiltered evaluations of the sometimes ambiguous facts. His recitation of the statistics involved in this research does get a bit tedious at times, and I'll admit I found the history and cultural studies more interesting than the dry numerical comparisons and graphs (as an engineer, I get enough of that at work.). He cites the few instances of women in combat, especially the Dahomey all-female regiments in the 19th century and the stubborn woman warriors in our own Civil War, several of whom were wounded, had their sex exposed, were drummed out of their unit, and promptly found another unknowing miltary faction who bought the deception all over again. Hollywood, where are you? His insistence on using our DNAS-kin primates as comparators of social-warfare behavior I found to be of limited use, as, ultimately, I believe he did. This stuff could have been significantly curtailed. But his description of human heterosexuality, homosexuality, prostitution, labor substitution, women in the military and temporary women's liberation during war time was most enlightening. He makes a good case that women actualy serve to enable and enforce men's war making proclivities by spurning them as womanly cowards if they retreat on the battlefield and also serve as key elements in the patriotic zeitgeist mobilized by government propaganda. Interestingly, the role of testosterone in war making tendencies seems to be muted at best, despite its universally recognized potential for aggressive behavior. Goldstein also demonstrates that women have been as big an advocate of war as they have been war protestors, so that the mythology of women as natural peacelovers is little more than that. The book also discusses the dichotomy society finds itself in when it talks of desiring peace; it promotes the romance of war almost from the conception of the male child and praises all the warrior virtues as virtually the only acceptable definition of manliness. Goldstein, at the end, mildly endorses sports as an alternative for these military energies, but without much conviction. I, for one, think that war and killing is as essential to the human makeup as the need to love and procreate is, the yin and yang of humanity. The idea of universal peace is as contrary to the natural order of things as black would be without white. That is not a PC view of life but that's what any reader of history must inevitably surmise.

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Feminist Male Maker, April 1, 2004

By 

Chris M. White (Lawrence, KS United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa (Paperback)

Goldstein's approach should grab male readers especially interested in understanding how gender shapes the war system, for he comes at it from an interdisciplinary angle that attempts to thoroughly cover the popular explanations for gender roles in war and then challenge them with the most up to date evidence. His conclusion after all of this is that gender roles are not inevitable or inherent in human nature, but that human culture, responding to subtle differences between the genders, shapes the war system along gendered lines. A must read for all gender scholars and activists.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Book reveals that patriarchy doesn't work., January 13, 2012

By 

kathleen cantarella - See all my reviews

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This review is from: War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa (Paperback)

I'm a feminist (female - left & progressive) and I have recommended this book several times in various places to the confusion of a lot of fellow feminists. This book has gathered together a lot of information across disciplines that ultimately reveals what polarizing the genders does to our societies. The 'men are men, and women are women' attitude creates a more aggressive world. Why do people recommend socializing girls to reject their more aggressive impulses yet recommend boys embrace & exercise their aggression at the same time? It seems incredibly foolish to do so in the light of the evidence presented in a book like this. We should be teaching our girls to stand up for themselves while teaching our boys to reject their most aggressive impulses. Equity & de-centralization of power is the only stable structure in any human society.
This book is presented from a white male's perspective, and since white male-dominated societies are possibly the most war-prone of all, it is a valuable book. Not for the author's conclusions, which are really not conclusions at all, but for the compilation of evidence that allows each reader to think about the implications of two strictly separated genders created by war, and wars created by two strictly separated genders. I find it unbearably sad that the obviously intelligent author has been socialized to be unable to clearly envision a different society where men can be soft and women can be tough enough to compel peace.

Go hug your sons and tell your daughters to go in the yard throw the football around.