ABSTRACT
War separates the population along sex lines, and in that respect it resembles childbirth. In war, women are additionally excluded from the military; in birthing, men were until recently excluded from the birthrooms. As psychologists interested in social change, the authors take a systems approach. They attempt to understand our subject by identifying its many facets, their interrelationships, and the totality they form. A similar systems approach has been used by psychologists who study and intervene in cases of girls sexually abused by their fathers. Our systems approach must recognize that men, too, are the unwitting–or witting–expressions of narrow categorizations of them. They are the soldiers, experts, leaders and protectors, locked into the feeling and behavior available to such roles. When this systems approach is carried over to the context of war, the authors see that the role of the protector does not exist in a vacuum.
