Why Female Soldiers Remain a Feminist Conundrum

The Conundrum of the Female Soldiers examines one of the most contested
issues in contemporary gender studies: women in the military. Drawing on two
decades of research and the author’s formative encounter with
pioneering feminist scholar Cynthia Enloe, this book explores why women
soldiers continue to unsettle both feminist theory and public debate.

Through a critical sociological lens, the book traces gendered assumptions
that military institutions rely on?about masculinity, femininity,
protection, vulnerability, and heroism?to justify their existence and
mobilize society for war. At the same time, it reveals how women’s
increasing participation in armed forces around the world disrupts these
assumptions, challenging long-standing patriarchal structures while also
risking new forms of militarization.

From Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to the war in Ukraine, the author
demonstrates that women’s roles in the military cannot be reduced to
simple narratives of progress or equality. Instead, they illuminate the
complex, often paradoxical dynamics between militarism, gender, and society.

Bringing together essays and studies written over twenty years, this volume
provides an essential guide for anyone seeking to understand how asking
“gendered questions” transforms the study of war, the
military, and power itself.
Endorsements

“As I read The Conundrum of the Female Soldiers, I kept thinking of all the readers it will excite globally. Fumika Satō’s expertise in the political sociology of women in both the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the US military is rare. Furthermore, she exposes both contested masculinities and femininities. By framing women soldiers (recruiting them, abusing them, constructing rival narratives about them) as posing cultural and political “conundrums” Satō reminds us all to pay more attention to gendered resistances to militarisms.”
------ Cynthia Enloe, author of Twelve Feminist Lessons of War

“Once faced with hostility from the feminist left to the conservative right, Fumika Satō could not have published The Conundrum of the Female Soldiers at a more pertinent moment. As Japan’s first female prime minister, along with leaders around the world, pursues massive remilitarization under newly critical conditions, Japan’s premier sociologist of war and the military delivers the results of a quarter century of dissecting both institutions through the lens of gender. A distinctive, persuasive, and provocative accomplishment and an essential contribution to the sociology of military establishments that richly deserves to be widely read.”

------ Sabine Frühstück, author of Uneasy Warriors: Gender, Memory, and Popular Culture in the Japanese Army

Table of contents

Preface

Part I: A Sociology of War and the Military from the Perspective of Gender
Chapter 1: A Sociology of War and the Military from the Gender Perspective
Chapter 2: Studies of Men and Masculinities in War and Militaries
Chapter 3: Militarism, Militarization and Patriarchy

Part II: The Conundrum of the Female Soldiers
Chapter 4: Difficulties Facing Women Soldiers
Chapter 5: Are Women Soldiers a Sign of Gender Equality?
Chapter 6: War, Militaries and Feminism

Part III: Gender in the Self-Defense Forces
Chapter 7: A Camouflaged Military: Japan’s Self-Defense Forces and
Globalized Gender Mainstreaming
Chapter 8: Gendered “Postmodern
Militaries”:Femininity/Masculinity Mobilized around
“Newness”
Chapter 9: The“Benevolent”Japan Self-Defense Forces and Their
Utilization of Women

Part IV: Gender in the US Military
Chapter 10: Women in the US Armed Forces
Chapter 11: Militarized “Equality” and
“Diversity”: A Case Study of the US Military

Part V: War, the Military and Sexuality
Chapter 12: War, the Military and Sexuality: Reading What Soldiers Do: Sex
and the American GI in World War II France
Chapter 13: War and Sexual Violence: On the Legitimacy of Narrative

Conclusion: Critical Gender Studies in War and the Military

Afterword


◆書誌データ
書名　：The Conundrum of the Female Soldiers: War and the Military
from a Gender Perspective
著者　：SATŌ Fumika
頁数　：360頁
刊行日：2026/2/28
出版社：Trans Pacific Press
定価　：5,263円（税込）

※本書は、『女性兵士という難問――ジェンダーから問う戦争・軍隊の社会学』（慶應義塾大学出版会、2022年）の英訳書です。
原著（日本語版）は以下に紹介があります。
https://wan.or.jp/article/show/10195