Women in Wars – A cross-border comparison between Europe,

Asia and Middle East

Law Po Yee, Sunny 10019510Tong Wai Kit, Wilson

10012214Lui Sin Ting, Annie 10011242

Europe

Women’s Role and Responsibilities

A new source of labour force

New roles and responsibilities in 3 aspects:

1. family 2. factory work 3. Support for war

homefront

Family become the

breadwinners of the family

Take care of child and elderly

Evacuation Food rationing

Factory Work Encouraged and

later conscripted by the government

Engaged in both domestic and war production

Take part in jobs which used to be done by male only

Unequally paid

Support for war1. The Women's

Land Army2. The Auxiliary

Territorial Service3. Women's Royal

Naval Service 4. Women's Auxiliary

Air Force 

Influence Financially

independent Sense of

accomplishment and satisfaction

war ended were encouraged to give up their job

emergence of 1950s-60s feminism

Advocating women rights

Comparison to Middle East/Asia Unequally treated basic human rights As replacement of

males in several aspects

Voluntarily work to support the war , willing to utilized by the government

Asia

Asia

Rare cases of women combatants Possible reason: societal hierachy of men & women (e.g. Little Chinese women

received education) Interesting musculine characteristic as feminist influence was not

prominent in Asiae.g. Vietnamese women could be judges, soldiers or even rulers

The Trung Sisters (Hai Ba Trung) of Vietnam & 80,000 fighters

Successful rebellion against Chinese in 39CE

Japanese Women Samurai (Tomoe Gozen)

Martial Arts, Self-defense training

Combat Duties

Asia Victims of sexual assault – forced

to work as prostitutes in Japanese military brothels, gathered within civilians or combatants

War rape used as an psychological warfare to humiliate the enemy – significant even though not a voluntary duty

e.g. Comfort Women in WWII: ~Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese and Philippino women

US Army: after the Battle of Okinawa in 1945 : official broadcast that rapes, torture or murder might take place

Non- Combat Duties

Difference between Asia and Europe/Middle East:

Little non-combat/combat duties assigned (More passive roles during wartime)

Statuses of women vary greatly across Asian countries (e.g. Asia & Vietnam) – rich cultural diversity

Divergence derived from traditional Asian ideologies, almost a total opposite to Europe

Middle East

Women as Soldiers To expand the army, women are recruited as soldiers

In the Iran-Iraq conflict, Iranian trained female combatants for war

Israel Defense Forces(IDF) set up in 1948 Arab–Israeli War (women comprising 33% of all IDF soldiers)

Women as Suicide Bombers

female suicide bombers are often portrayed as the chaste wives and mothers of the revolution

• Women make up around •7% of Palestinian suicide bombers, •1% of suicide bombers in Iraq

Political Participation As a large proportion of the male population was

concentrated at the war front

Women found opportunities for employment in the government sector

Iran: the number of women in the civil service and higher education has risen during Iran-Iraq War(1980-1990)

Palestine: women’s political activity and participation in resistance groups expanded during Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Lebanon: certain parties specifically sought women’s participation during the civil war (1975-1190)

Reproductive role Governments desire for a expanding

population during wartime

Iran:prohibited abortion

discouraged contraception

• lowered the age of marriage for girls to puberty

Difference between Middle East and Asia/Europe

Political participation increased slightly during wartime

Status of women is the lowest: suicide bombers

Muslim: women are inferior in legal status and rights

Human rights are ignored: reproductive tools