Commentary: Everyday essentialism and women’s experiences in armed forces

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Gnatchenko, Yevgeniia and Theuerkauf, Ulrike G. (2025) Commentary: Everyday essentialism and women’s experiences in armed forces. Armed Forces & Society. ISSN 0095-327X

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Abstract

This commentary is a response to two articles published on the 2025 OnlineFirst pages of Armed Forces & Society: “Women in the Military: Navigating Through Female Life Stages and Military Career by ‘Acting Normally’” by Nadia Diacone, Elena Bendien, Eva van Baarle, and Petra Verdonk; and “When Professionalism Is Not Enough: On Public Discourse Regarding Women’s Combat Service in Israel—the Case of Iron Swords (2023–2025)” by Elisheva Rosman and Itamar Rickover. The two articles make important points about the persistence of everyday essentialist gender stereotypes that affect the culture of military organizations, the experiences of female military personnel, and public attitudes toward women in state armed forces. We argue that the two articles also contain findings which challenge the literature on war as a catalyst for women’s empowerment, and that academic and policy-making communities should pay closer attention to these findings that make us question the transformative potential of war.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Yevgeniia Gnatchenko would like to thank the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust for the funding that made the workshops possible.
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > The State, Governance and Conflict
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Migration Research Network
Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Gender and Its Intersections
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 14 Nov 2025 14:30
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2025 07:30
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/100978
DOI: 10.1177/0095327X251389243

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