In the past several decades, women have joined insurgent armies in significant and surprising numbers. Why do women become guerrilla insurgents?  What experiences do they have in guerrilla armies?  And what happens to these women when the fighting ends? Women in War: The Micro-processes of Mobilization in El Salvador (Oxford Studies in Culture and Politics, 2013) by Associate Professor Jocelyn Viterna answers these questions while providing a rare look at guerrilla life from the viewpoint of rank-and-file participants.  

From 230 in-depth interviews with men and women guerrillas, guerrilla supporters, and non-participants in El Salvador, Viterna investigates why some women were able to channel their wartime actions into post-war gains, and how those patterns differ from the benefits that accrued to men.  Through this analysis, Viterna develops a new model for investigating the causes, patterns, and consequences of individual-level variations in activism.  Women in War also demonstrates how an investigation of these micro-level mobilization processes can in turn extend our understanding of how social movements begin, why they endure, and whether they change the societies they target.  Women in War was published in November of 2013.  Her book was featured in El Faro Académico, a newspaper in El Salvador (see "Mujeres en la guerra: Quienes ganan, quienes pierden").  Cover photo by Linda Hess Miller.