concerned with the second meaning. If the first meaning creates contro-
versy, then the second raises deeply disruptive political issues.

The importance of this study rests in the careful collection and analysis
of the documentary data both on the expansion of the combat support
roles of women and on the direct use of women in combat units. Both
historically and geographically the scope of the study is immense; the case
studies focus on the period since the American and French revolutions
and on a broad sampling of industrialized and developing nations.

We live in a time in which social scientists emphasize the importance of
so-called thought-out decisions and the development of explicit policies.
They may be correct in pointing out that in the contemporary period it has
become more and more important to formulate a precise policy concerning
the utilization of women in the military. In the past, according to my
reading of this research, the expansion of the role of women in the armed
forces came slowly and came more as a result of the immediate pressure
of military circumstances and less as the result of deliberate decisions.
This is not to overlook the importance of ideological and cultural factors
as barriers to the mobilization of women into the armed forces and espe-
cially into combat units. To a considerable extent, the increasing use of
women as support personnel came slowly in military units because women
were thought of as a personnel pool that could replace men. Then, men
could assume combat and front-line duties. But as this process of replace-
ment has been pressed women have become exposed extensively to the
dangers of enemy firepower. In any future conventional war in central
Europe, women can certainly be expected to be subjected to extensive
enemy fire. I speak not of civilian casualties but of support personnel in
uniform. In the United States and other highly industrialized nations with
complex weapons and massive logistical systems, under conditions of
conventional hostilities the distinction between combat support and actual
involvement in combat becomes vague.

The historical analysis of women in active combat, highlights the differ-
ence between the mobilization of women in the past and the current
dilemmas that policymakers face. In the past, the few cases of the mobi-
lization of women into combat units were not so much the result of pre-
meditation as the result of the sheer presence of circumstances. Women
were armed when the homeland was invaded or when survival of a socio-
political movement was at stake. Under conditions of relatively simple
military organization and simple weapons, it was possible rapidly and
directly to mobilize women into basic combat units. After the crisis, the
pattern generally was to release women from such units. In the contem-
porary setting in the highly industrialized nations using women in combat
units means to recruit special categories of women, to train them and to
deploy them effectively; doing so means creating and implementing an

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