ABSTRACT
The Battles of Midway, Guadalcanal, and Leyte Gulf were the focal points for the war in the Pacific, while major land battles also took place in North Africa. Thousands of colonized subjects fought on behalf on their colonial overseers. Even before the San Francisco conference began to establish the United Nations, differences arose over many issues. The issue, however, of whether women would be part of the struggle for self-determination was not broached often within the United Nations. However, it is apparent from the case studies in this chapter on the Mau Mau in Kenya, the National Liberation Front in Algeria, and the Vietnamese in both the First and Second Indochina wars, that women did take active part in engaging in political violence against colonial authorities. All three of these case studies demonstrated how women in patriarchal societies challenged the restrictions on their involvement in the public sphere and ultimately took up arms on behalf of national liberation.
