Have conscripted women fought in any notable battles or wars?
Upvote:1
In the USSR they mostly conscripted only women to work as rear personnel. There were some women's fight units as well but formed on volunteer basis.
In the USSR in 1942 there were 3 waves of mobilization of the women.
- The first one for 100 000 Komsomol women into air defense.
- The second one for 30 000 women into communications service
- The third one for 40 000 women mainly into logistics service and to serve as secretaries.
In 1943 there were the following women mobilizations:
The first one for 4 200 mainly for service for service personnel (cooks, laundry etc).
The second was for 25 000 women but this was on voluntary basis.
I would also add the following air force regiments composed of volunteer women pilots:
- The 586 Women's Fighter Regiment
- The 587 Women's Near Bomber regiment
- The 588 Women's Night Aviation Regiment
Upvote:3
Let us not forget the fearsome amazon warriors of Dahomey in West Africa.
Borghero listens, but his mind is wandering. He finds the general captivating: “slender but shapely, proud of bearing, but without affectation.” Not too tall, perhaps, nor excessively muscular. But then, of course, the general is a woman, as are all 3,000 of her troops. Father Borghero has been watching the King of Dahomey’s famed corps of “amazons,” as contemporary writers termed them—the only female soldiers in the world who then routinely served as combat troops.
Upvote:5
Wikipedia lists 9 countries that conscript women:
. . . only nine countries have laws allowing for the conscription of women into their armed forces: China, Eritrea, Israel, Libya, Malaysia, North Korea, Norway, Bolivia and Taiwan.
I am aware of two of those countries that have recently engaged in combat.
- Libya has recently fought a civil war; women probably fought. I can't find any records of Qaddafi's amazon guard fighting, although I would assume they did so.
- Israel has definitely had women in combat.
Obviously in the pre-modern period, conscription was the norm - in a feudal society, military service is effectively conscripted. (If you fail to show up for feudal levies the government will punish you; we could argue the edge cases of this, but for the purposes of this question, I think it stands). Nicchola de la Haye was the castellan of Lincoln castle during the Baronial revolt against John. She defended the castle. If she had not done so, she would have been brought to account by her government.
Modern military service is generally volunteer service (once again, I am aware of exceptions to the rule, but I don't think they affect the question). Individuals are not conscripted to fight, but once they volunteer, the government will punish them for failing to fight. I mention this because there are hundreds if not thousands of women in combat positions, many of whom have seen service. Major Rossi was the first US woman known to have given her life in combat.
Other sources:
- Women in Russian/Soviet Military Consult @Anixx's answer, which suggests that conscripted Soviet women were unlikely to have seen combat.
- women in the six day war
- The Women in War project
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