Women and War in Modern East Asia
Spring 2005
Virginia Tech
Professor: Helen M. Schneider
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This course was designed to encourage students to think broadly about women in society and specifically about the contradictions in East Asian societies at war in the twentieth century. The class was intended to disrupt any idea that war is a male pursuit and that women are historically less important in war. We assumed from the beginning that women do experience war differently than men. Women’s specific experiences of war are most striking in the cases of civilian death, rape and torture, refugee status and home front activities. As shown by the cartoon to the right, women are often perceived to be the ones who play supporting roles encouraging men in war; they “stay behind” and support their husbands, fathers and brothers as they make war to defend national honor. As we learned, however, they can also take up arms and fight in conflicts of national importance or work in movements for peace. The
class examined cases of women and war in three East Asian countries: The course was broadly divided into four categories: women as combatants, women on the home front, women as victims of war, and women as opponents of war. In each of these themed sections, we looked at some theoretical perspectives of women and war before going on to examine specific cases of women in violent situations. In two of these sections, students read additional materials and prepared a final paper comparing different primary and secondary works about the topics. Please click here for a link to the themes and material covered.
This page last modified: October, 2006 |
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The drawing above is from the cover of War of Resistance Cartoons, a magazine published during the Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945). The caption is “Go into the soldier's kitchens!" |
