ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a review of the literature on women in combat and points out the current gap in the literature that our manuscript fills. The chapter argues that there is little systematic, theoretically based analysis of female combatants. We present our own theoretical framework, which relies on political psychology, in particular concepts drawn from social identity and image theory as analytical tools. We also discuss the methodology used in the study, in particular the nature of the interviews conducted to gather data for the study. This chapter addresses the main questions that our book attempts to answer: Why so many women fought for the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) and the Contras.
