One is not born, but rather becomes, a warrior? A history of ideas regarding men, women, and combat since 1900

Thesis

This thesis examines changing policies and attitudes regarding men, women, and combat participation in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) from 1900 to the present day. Drawing on Thomas Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions, it introduces a new theory of ‘norm revolution’ to explain how mainstream opinion has shifted over time. Using a mixed methods approach that combines Comparative Historical Analysis (CHA) with Large-N survey data, the study demonstrates how competing theories of human nature, war, and violence have set the parameters of public discourse, influenced government decision-making, and shaped military doctrine in the UK and US over the last 125+ years. Throughout the early twentieth century it was widely assumed, in line with Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, that males possess an inborn proclivity for war and violence. However, the experience of the two World Wars challenged this idea. Mounting anomalies and contradictions came to light, including the ‘shell shock’ phenomenon and the apparent unwillingness of many male soldiers to fire their weapons. At the same time, the scale of death and destruction that had been enabled by new technologies and bureaucratic processes – epitomised by the Holocaust – sparked debate over the nature of aggression. By the late twentieth century, alternate theories of war and violence had gained prominence. These theories emphasised human malleability and the power of social conditioning to make otherwise ordinary individuals commit violent acts, which gave rise to new combat training methodologies and ultimately strengthened the abiding case for female participation in warfare given it was assumed that under the right conditions, there is a potential warrior in all of us. By reconstructing the debate over women in combat and emphasising the causal importance of structure (paradigmatic ideas) over agency (activism), this study contributes to contemporary history and offers a new theoretical framework for approaching the study of norm change in International Relations (IR).

Authors: Curtis, F

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-orxb98zwr
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: norm revolution; norm theory
• Subjects: Historical sociology; Women and war; Intellectual history; Social norms; Social constructionism; International relations and culture