ABSTRACT
Max Weber’s definition of the state as the institution holding a monopoly on the legitimate use of force within a specified geographical area is widely accepted — at least as a basis for discussion. The nature of ‘political man’ is an equally familiar subject to political thinkers. Most women have little interest in or concern about the military. Perhaps this involves a taboo against the use of violence by those charged with infant nurture. Perhaps it involves a deep-rooted desire on the part of women to believe that defence is men’s business and that men can provide security. In exploring the issue of women and combat it seems clear that men’s psychology underpins many of the arguments which are framed as though the issue were one of women’s physiology. Morever, even the discussion of women’s possible loss of ‘femininity’ may, in fact, be about men’s concern for their ‘masculinity’.
