ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes how gender politics shape both the homecoming narratives of this expanding group within the American military, as well as the policies of the institutions charged with aiding soldiers transitions home. By shifting the focus from the frontlines to the post-service home front, gender-destabilizing legacies of war, such as homelessness, militarized sexual trauma, and post-traumatic stress disorder, become priority experiences for many former service women. The presence in civilian society of these struggling women veterans radically disrupts hegemonic conceptions of American soldiering as well as the ideal of the State as the steward of returning soldiers. It is no surprise that, until very recently, these intimate yet critical personal experiences have been largely invisible in the official public discourse of American war. As the individual narratives of women soldiers and veterans become increasingly public, they provide scholars with an opportunity to witness a dynamic process.
