This anthology opens with several compelling first-person
narratives of life inside the U.S. military institution, followed
by analyses by both military and civilian researchers. The
academic contributors approach their topics from different
disciplines, including political science, history, sociology, and
literature/film. The volume seeks to bridge the gap between
those inside the institution and those on the outside (p. ix).
The effort to build this bridge began with a series of
specialized conferences and workshops on gender and mili-
tary culture spanning the 1990s. I participated in several of
these and heard some of the contributors to this collection
present their research. Other volumes that developed from
the conferences are Mary Fainsod Katzenstein's Faithful and
Fearless (1998), Mary Fainsod Katzenstein and Judith Reppy,
Beyond Zero Tolerance (1999), and Francine D'Amico and
Laurie Weinstein, Gender Camouflage (1999).