Military occupations and interventions have a gendered impact on both those engaged in occupying, and those whose lands have been occupied. Yet little is known about this gendered impact, in terms of both masculinities and femininities, either historically or in contemporary times. While research in this area has begun to grow since events in Iraq and Afghanistan, this collection helps redress the relative neglect by examining and analysing the impact of occupation on men and women, both occupied and occupier, in a variety of geographical spaces from Japan to Palestine to Iraq. Gendered perspectives are also intimately tied to analyses of ‘power’: how power is enacted by the occupier; how powerlessness is experienced by the occupied; how power is negotiated, shared, compromised, subverted, reclaimed; power as visible and invisible; institutional power; contested power in post-conflict societies; and power as discursively constructed. The term ‘military occupation’ is interpreted broadly to include occupation, interventions, the presence of military bases and peacekeeping/post-conflict operations. This interpretation allows space to demonstrate that the lines between each definition are blurred, especially when it comes to analysing gender and power.

Military occupations and interventions have a gendered impact on both those engaged in occupying, and those whose lands have been occupied, yet little has been published about this effect either historically or in contemporary times. This collection redresses this neglect by examining and analyzing the impact of occupation on men and women, both occupied and occupier, in a variety of geographical spaces from Japan to the Philippines to Iraq. The gendered perspectives offered are also intimately tied to analyses of ‘power’: how power is enacted by the occupier; how powerlessness is experienced by the occupied; how power is negotiated, shared, compromised, subverted, reclaimed; institutional power; and contested power in post-conflict societies. This collection covers a variety of geographical and period contexts in the Asia Pacific and Middle East since 1945, offering the reader a comparative view across time and space of post-WWII military occupations and interventions. The term ‘military occupation’ is interpreted broadly to include military interventions, the presence of military bases, and peacekeeping/post-conflict operations, allowing space to demonstrate that the lines between each definition are blurred. Including perspectives from established and emerging scholars, aid workers, and activists from around the world, this volume incorporates voices from those conducting research on and those with direct experience of military occupations and interventions.

The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) is best known for its athletic and youth programs, a heritage that draws on its origins in 1844 to provide wholesome recreation to urban youth away from the moral decay of industrialized urban living. Before long, that uplift mission found a place in the American Civil War, and soon the Y had spread all over the world by the early twentieth century, and in every major war thereafter as well. The YMCA at War: Collaboration and Conflict during the World Wars is the first collection of scholarship to examine the YMCA’s efforts during the World Wars of the twentieth century, which proved to be a bastion of support to soldiers and civilians around the world. The YMCA deployed hundreds of thousands of its much-vaunted secretaries to support suffering civilians and ease soldiers’ wartime hardships. Joining forces with governments, other civic organizations, and individuals, the Y could be either an indispensable auxiliary or an arms-length nuisance. In all cases, its support had a significant byproduct: for every person it befriended, the Y invariably made an enemy with an opposing party, its patrons, its sponsor, or at times, all three. The YMCA at War offers fresh, timely research in an international and comparative perspective from scholars around the world that evaluates this conflict and collaboration during the World Wars.

Drawing primarily upon oral history interviews, this study presents a woman-centred history of the Indonesian occupation. It reveals the pervasiveness of violence as well as its gendered and gendering dynamics within the social and cultural everyday of life in occupied East Timor. The violence experienced by East Timorese women ranged from torture, rape, and interrogation, to various forms of surveillance and social control, and the structural imposition of particular feminine ideals upon their lives and bodies. Through women, East Timorese familial culture was also targeted via programmes to develop and modernise the territory by transforming the feminine and the domestic sphere. Women experienced the occupation differently to men, not just because they were vulnerable to sexual violence, but also because they endured proxy violence as the militarys means of targeting male relatives and the resistance at large. In Womens Words tells a story of survival and perseverance by highlighting the strength, initiative, and negotiating skills of East Timorese women. Many women lived in circumstances of constant negotiation and attempts to maintain order and normality, as well as to provide for themselves and their families, in a society where everyday life was characterised by violence and uncertainty. This study demonstrates the capacity of people to survive, to endure, and to resist, even amid the most difficult of circumstances. It provides insights into the social and cultural elements of territorial control, as well as the locally-grounded strategies that are often used for negotiating and resisting an occupying power.

Sanitized Sex analyzes the development of new forms of regulation concerning prostitution, venereal disease, and intimacy during the American occupation of Japan after the Second World War, focusing on the period between 1945 and 1952. It contributes to the cultural and social history of the occupation of Japan by investigating the intersections of ordering principles like race, class, gender, and sexuality. It also reveals how sex and its regulation were not marginal but key issues in postwar empire-building, U.S.-Japanese relations, and American and Japanese self-imagery. The regulation of sexual encounters between occupiers and occupied was closely linked to the disintegration of the Japanese empire and the rise of U.S. hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region during the Cold War era. Shedding new light on the configuration of postwar Japan, the process of decolonization, the postcolonial formation of the Asia-Pacific region, and the particularities of postwar U.S. imperialism, Sanitized Sex offers a reading of the intimacies of empires—defeated and victorious.

This book examines how women candidates, voters, and office holders shape U.S. political processes and institutions, lending their perspectives to gradually evolve American life and values. This book provides an encyclopedic sourcebook on the evolution of women's involvement in American politics from the colonial era to the present, covering all of the individuals, organizations, cultural forces, political issues, and legal decisions that have collectively served to elevate the role of women at the ballot box, on the campaign trail, in Washington, and in state- and city-level political offices across the country. The in-depth essays document and examine the rising prominence of women as voters, candidates, public officials, and lawmakers, enabling readers to understand how U.S. political processes and institutions have been—and will continue to be—shaped by women and their perspectives on American life and values. The entries cover a range of women politicians and officials; female activists and media figures; relevant organizations and interest groups, such as Emily's List, League of Women Voters, and National Right to Life; key laws, court cases, and events, such as the Nineteenth Amendment, the Equal Rights Amendment, the Seneca Falls Convention, the passage of Title IX, and Roe v. Wade; and other topics, like media coverage of appearance, women's roles as campaign strategists/fundraisers, gender differences in policy priorities, and the gender gap in political ambitions. The text is supplemented by sidebars that highlight selected landmarks in women's political history in the United States, such as the 2012 election of Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay U.S. senator.