Lady Leathernecks: The Enigma of Women in the United States Marine Corps

This telling work directly addresses a critical issue within today’s US military. In contrast to the militant tactics of radical feminists or living legends vignettes, the research offered in this title presents female Marines’ experiences, opinions, and suggestions for women’s success in the USMC. The women interviewed by the author live the experience, providing nuanced, sometimes colorful, details of day-to-day military life that can never be captured by climate surveys and Likert scales. They share their mistakes, heartbreaks, successes, and love of God, Country, and Corps. They allow us to experience vicariously the enigma of being a female Marine. Not essentialist but pragmatic, their sense of kinship and equivalence provides a practical foundation for comprehending and, perhaps, fixing what allegedly is wrong with the U.S. military’s sex/gender relations.