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Waging Gendered Wars: U.S. Military Women in Afghanistan & Iraq Book Review

Nicholas Angilley

OGL 350

Dr. Marie Wallace

24 October, 2022
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Waging Gendered Wars: U.S. Military Women in Afghanistan & Iraq Book Review

After experiencing the U.S. Military experience first hand, I definitely have various

perspectives and translations of the structure and culture within. I can be certain that every single

person that has served in the military, has very different experiences than everyone else, many

similarities but many differences. That goes to be said across the board, but the differences

between women and men in the military were profound and can play a large factor in how

someone experienced their time in the military. I found the book, Waging Gendered Wars: U.S.

Military Women in Afghanistan & Iraq, to be very informative and eye opening with the

gendered wars that women face in the military.

As the book was published in 2014, I was in my first enlistment from September of 2015-

September of 2019, following directly after the release of the book. In that time, there were

enormous amounts of masculinity and motivation that flowed through Combat units across the

Marine Corps. This has a number of effects on the poor buildings that house those said Marines,

called barracks. The barracks is just as interesting to walk through as campus on a Tuesday

morning following Halloween on Monday night. Various types of people from all over the

world, that all live and interact on a regular basis, but with absolutely no politically correct

jurisdiction. There can be 5 guys in the martial arts pit, physically fighting each other over who

is going to sit in the front seat to go get food. Another 15 that are smoking and joking, cheering

and yelling slang watching the fight happen, while the barracks duty that is in charge, casually

walks by with a nod and smile.

The combat arms in the Marines especially, have been driven on intensity,

professionalism, and pain. Our job was demanding in all ways, but we had our guys to the left or

the right of us to push us to limits we were not able to fathom. The thought of a woman in our
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shoes was not even discussed, because there had never been any. Until the policy passed, women

were allowed and were integrated into the combat echelon of the Marines. We all were nervous.

Not in a sense of being around women in general, but just as the single female Marine being

placed in a platoon with 40 men, the men were just as anxious to adjust. At first, it was about

whether or not she was going to be attractive or single, but then it took one person to change

everyone’s mindset in the platoon.

“You boys shouldn’t be worried about how cute she is, you should be worried about her showing

up and being better than you because you are a weak b**** and a s****y leader.”

It had gone from a negative masculine mindset and turned it into something that all

Marines love to win, a competition. Now outside looking in, you may be thinking that

competition can lead to negative effects and internal problems within any organization or team.

But that is not the case in the Marines, or in this instance. The mindset is that there is always

room for improvement and to better oneself not for the selfishness of themselves, but to better

everyone around you.

At first arrival, there is always that one loud mouth, we will call him John, that has to

cause a problem, and it was subtly growing a fire not only within myself, but unknowingly it

sparked a fire in the new female Marine in the platoon. I will call her “Annie” to keep

confidentiality. Well Annie had heard what the guy had said, and approximately 2 hours after the

jokes and comments, I had just released them from formation (basically being told you are off of

work) and she made all of our jaws drop. As soon as I dismissed everyone, she looked right at

John and sternly said,

“If you have a problem with me, whether you secretly have a crush on me or you feel threatened,

drop your blouse and let's handle it.”

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Before anyone could even react, she charged right at him and tackled him in the middle

of the barracks lawn. At that moment, there was absolutely no more question if women could

interact and be a part of combat jobs. She had won the fight and won all of our respect

undoubtedly.

With that being said, I was extremely curious as to how well this book would portray the

gendered wars in the military. At first, I was in full expectation that the book was going to be

filled with crazy war stories from Iraq & Afghanistan in first person. Instead, it is a book that

contains a large plethora of case studies, investigations, books, and personal stories that show

directly how the military being centered on masculinity is not feasible in today’s day and age.

The book had brought to light so many different aspects to how women have faced oppression

while serving, it was relieving knowing it has since then changed, but also sickening knowing it

has been going on for over a hundred years.

Paige Whaley Eager had struck many different emotional aspects of the wars and how it

affected women serving, and I was curious as to why there were not any stories of her own. After

doing extensive research, I found that she has not served in the armed forces, but her family tree

has generations of serving, including her husband. With the little information I can find on her,

“Paige Whaley Eager is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Hood College, Frederick,

Maryland, USA.,” and has written two other political books where she has made her voice

known. (Google Books)

To break it down, Waging Gendered Wars brought the behind the scenes factual dirt that

the military and patriarchy have been getting away with for far too long. Her determination to

allow stories, sometimes for the first time being documented, to be heard on the large scale of
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how women have greatly contributed to almost every U.S. War to date. I found this quote from a

Colonel in the book that really struck me.

“The women have ended the debate over their role by their performance. I have relieved males

from command, but I've never relieved a female commander in two and a half years as the head

Commander of Warhorse.” (Eager)

This gives some insight that not everyone in the military suffers from masculin ignorance. Even

in war time women go above and beyond themselves and their duties, for the exact same reason

as men do, for the soldier or troop to the left and the right of them. I can understand some

instances and rationalities on why women would not be considered to be in combat, but after

decades of research that directly depicts the opposite of the policies, they can now join a MOS of

any kind. I felt like the book gave a great deal of information and testimonies to prove that was

the right choice.

Although the book was nothing of what was anticipated, I felt as if it was a bit

unorganized. There were many instances where the topic at hand would be specific to the Iraq

war, and then randomly jump to a whole new idea in the next paragraph. Although both points

that were made were valid, the placement for some of the information could have been

strategically placed in a more fitting area of a section. I felt like the jumping through history had

gotten a bit confusing because one page is about a historical part of feminism, then the next page

starting about deployment. If there would have been some type of correlation between the two or

comparing and contrasting the events had occurred, but it never did. This had been pretty

consistent in the majority of the chapters, but the information was consistent as she would stay

within the topics of the chapters in a sense.

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I would overall recommend this book to any woman that is interested in the military as it

gives high quality information that would only be learned by joining. I feel like this can be used

as a motivator in a sense for a woman that is interested in joining, as they are making the

difference, which is overall American history. I also feel like it can let someone less confident to

fight oppression, build that courage to do so. There is a piece of me that believes the upcoming

generation in the military should read this book, but at the same time, witnessing it first hand has

shown that the times and people are changing their ways. I believe the book had broken

thresholds for women in gendered wars in the U.S. military, giving information that is not

normally talked about or shown in the media. In my opinion, the military is almost always

misunderstood from the outside looking in, but this book gives a great understanding on how

much the women in the country have done in wars, politics, education, and completely changed

the military as a whole.

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Work Cited

Eager, Paige Whaley. Waging Gendered Wars: U.S. Military Women in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Routledge, 2020.

Eager, Paige Whaley. “From Freedom Fighters to Terrorists: Women and Political Violence.”

Google Books, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.,

https://books.google.com/books/about/From_Freedom_Fighters_to_Terrorists.html?id=l5t

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