“The Non-Combatant on the ‘Front Line’: British Servicewomen During the Troubles in Northern Ireland”

Abstract

Critical scholarship recognises women’s longstanding but unacknowledged presence on the “front line” but tends to explore what it means for the individual rather than why the military institution is invested in this myth. This paper draws on 20 interviews with female veterans of the Troubles and extensive archival material. It examines how servicewomen’s war labour was controlled by the British Army, by policy that kept them unarmed and wearing skirts, labelled as “non-combatants.” Building on scholarly recognition of women’s unacknowledged presence in “front line combat,” this paper considers the implications of control over servicewomen for how we understand military power.