Twelve Feminist Lessons of War

Renowned scholar-activist Cynthia Enloe lays out the lessons that women activists have drawn from their immediate experiences of war.

Twelve Feminist Lessons of War draws on firsthand experiences of war from women in places as diverse as Ukraine, Myanmar, Somalia, Vietnam, Rwanda, Algeria, Syria, and Northern Ireland to show how women’s wars are not men’s wars. With her engaging trademark style, Cynthia Enloe demonstrates how patriarchy and militarism have embedded themselves in our institutions and our personal lives.

Enloe reveals how the social and political influences that shape war–from military recruitment and economic collapse to sexual assault and reproductive rights (and their denial)–are deeply gendered and pervade women’s lives before, during, and in the aftermath of war. Her razor-sharp analysis, at once accessible and provocative, highlights how women’s emotional and physical labor is used to support government policies and how women’s rights activists–against all odds–remain committed in the midst of armed violence. Twelve Feminist Lessons of War is the gritty and grounded book we need to understand what is happening to our world.