Sexing the Soldier: The Politics of Gender and the Contemporary British Army

• the history and structure of the British Army as a masculine institution
• personnel policies which deal with gender issues
• the construction of ideas about military masculinities and femininities within the Army
• media representations of the figure of the soldier.

Using case studies ranging from the exclusion of women from direct combat posts, to the issues surrounding bullying, this book argues that we need a fuller, more nuanced assessment of gender issues in the military that moves beyond the simplistic ideas about women's and men's 'natural' capacities for soldiering.