Why Women Fight

<p><strong>Why do women fight in wars? The short answer is simply that women, like men, fight because they must. The longer answer is inevitably more complex.</strong></p><p><em>Why Women Fight</em> is a look into what drives women to take up arms, examining these reasons through the lives of individuals on the front lines. Busting the myth that female soldiers are a manifestation of modernity, it begins with Semiramis, a former milkmaid attributed with expanding the Babylonian empire, and concludes with Tatyana, a former shop assistant who went on to command a Ukrainian battalion of a thousand men.</p><p>Incorporating extraordinary interviews with resistance fighters, illegal paramilitaries, conscripts and regular volunteers, Victoria Preston explores some of the reasons why throughout history women have joined the fray.</p>