FEMINIST THEORY AND SOCIOLOGY OF THE MILITARY

The fact that the military is still predominantly an all-male institution has informed essentialist interpretations that link the feminine and women with peace and pacifism, and the masculine and men with war and aggression. Given a constructivist theoretical framework, however, femininity and masculinity are seen as built around binary and mutually exclusive categories, among them war and peace. The article examines the production and reproduction of these categories in the cultural construction of gender in the military.