“A Woman in the Army Is Still a Woman”: Representations of Women in US Military Recruiting Advertisements for the All-Volunteer Force

This article examines the ideals of militarized femininity disseminated in recruitment advertising. Based on an analysis of 30 years of recruitment advertisements for each of the four US military branches, I argue that representations of women serve to at once normalize the participation of women in the military and to erase it. The inclusion of a token number of women is routine, but they are not associated with markers of combat. By separating women from the imagery of war, the military reinforces gender divisions, reasserting the connections between masculinity and warriorhood, even as it helps to broaden definitions of femininity.