Introduction

This introduction provides an overview of the literature, a summary of some of the key content of each chapter, and identifies key themes and also historical context. It further connects the book’s findings to two different academic literatures. The literature on Southeast Asian women warriors, in particular Anthony Reid’s argument, that the ‘female autonomy’ thesis (on relative gender equality in the region) generally does not apply to warring. And the literature on women warriors, notably Joshua Goldstein’s thesis that warring is a highly gendered activity / phenomenon, notwithstanding the historically recorded participation of women in warfare as war leaders, individual fighters, and in mixed units or segregated units. The case studies in this volume generally confirm Reid’s and Goldstein’s theses, while pointing at the importance of how this gendering plays out in different contexts.