ABSTRACT
Scholars have analyzed gender and sexuality in military history through examinations of men's and women's roles in wartime as well as cultural analyses of gender constructions. Political scientist and feminist scholar Cynthia Enloe has produced a body of work throughout her career that established the foundation for much of the subsequent work on gender, sexuality, and militarization. Women's experiences in World War II planted the seeds of second-wave feminism, and the body of literature on the conflict includes studies of the gender politics that influenced women in the workplace and shaped depictions of women in popular culture. Gender and sexual norms also shaped the experiences of American servicewomen during World War II. Decolonization, post-1945 wars for independence and guerrilla movements have offered scholars case studies of women and war, both in terms of women's actual service and propaganda images of "people's wars".
