Living Legends and Full Agency

Chapter 4 Marginalized, Yet Accountable: The Irrationality of the Combat Exclusion Policy

As modern leaders and heads of states, like men, women have consistently demonstrated their political prowess during wartime. Women like Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and Margaret Thatcher ably led their countries through wars (Goldstein 2003). Others like Benazir Bhutto and Corazon Aquino visibly grappled with restraining their respective militaries. Aquino outlived seven assassination attempts and during the 1990s, TanSu Ciller of Turkey led a callous war to crush Kurdish rebels while President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka waged war against the Tamil separatists following her failed peace initiatives. Nicaragua’s Violeta Chamorro achieved ...