ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the literature that addresses how the transition to a volunteer force impacted the gendering of US forces. Scholars have explored the demographics of the new volunteer force and the gendering of recruitment. Various works have chronicled the transformation of women's participation that began in the 1970s, with women serving in greater numbers and in new roles, changes in family policy allowing women with children to serve, and the dissolution of separate women's organizations. They have also revealed military men's reactions to those changes. Scholars have investigated the attempts in the 1980s to roll back women's participation, the resurgence of militarized masculinity in the larger culture, and an accompanying lack of tolerance for gays and lesbians in the military. The chapter includes the literature on the 1991 Gulf War and media coverage of women, Gulf War-era ideals of militarized masculinity, and debates over women and combat.
