Camouflage Isn't Only for Combat

Drawing on surveys with almost three hundred female military personnel, both veteran and active duty, Melissa S. Herbert explores how women's everyday actions, such as choice of uniform, hobby, or social activity, involve the creation and re-creation of what it means to be a woman, and particularly a woman soldier.

Do women feel pressured to be "more masculine" to demonstrate that they are not weak or incompetent, or "more feminine" to convey that they are not a threat to men's jobs or status and to avoid being perceived as lesbians? How do these pressures manifest themselves on a day to day basis? And what strategies do women employ, consciously or unconsciously, to influence the way they are perceived?