On 27 November 1914, a monumental event in women's history occurred - the first female police officers (part of the Women Police Volunteers) went on duty in Grantham, Lincolnshire. The decision would quickly have an effect on female liberation. Suffragettes were behind the movement to see women on the beat. The Women Police Service was founded in 1914 in part because it was felt women in uniform would be better at deterring pimps and stopping girls from going into prostitution, but also because female campaigners wanted to take advantage of the First World War to push women into male work roles. Early policewomen were pioneers, but they faced great prejudice and hardship, often placed in vulnerable positions and left feeling isolated. Yet they were not so alone for across the country women were taking on roles traditionally reserved for men. 27 November 1914 was a turning point: it was the day the world changed.

Women have been actively involved the United States military for more than fifty years, but the ban on their participation in combat remains a hotly debated issue. In this provocative book Lorry M. Fenner, an active-duty Air Force intelligence officer, calls for opening all aspects of military service to women. Marie deYoung, a former Army chaplain, argues that keeping women out of combat is in the best interests of both sexes and crucial to the effectiveness of the military as a whole. Fenner bases her argument for inclusion of women on the idea that democracies require all citizens to compete in public endeavor and share in civic obligation. She contends that, historically, reasons for banning women from combat have been culturally biased. She argues that membership in a combat force should be based on capability judged against appropriate standards. Moreover, she maintains that excluding women hampers the diversity and adaptability that by necessity will characterize the armed forces in the twenty-first century. In contrast, deYoung declares that the different physical fitness standards for men and women would, in combat, lower morale for both sexes and put women at risk of casualty. Further, she contends that women have neither the physical or emotional strength to endure the overall brutality of the combat experience. She also asserts that calls for lifting the combat ban are politically motivated and are inconsistent with the principles of American democracy and the mission of national defense. With each author responding to the views of the other, their exchange offers a valuable synthesis of the issues surrounding a longstanding debate among policymakers, military personnel, and scholars of both military history and women’s studies.

Drawing on war propaganda, popular advertising, voluminous government records, and hundreds of letters and other accounts written by women in the 1940s, Melissa A. McEuen examines how extensively women's bodies and minds became "battlegrounds" in the U.S. fight for victory in World War II. Women were led to believe that the nation's success depended on their efforts--not just on factory floors, but at their dressing tables, bathroom sinks, and laundry rooms. They were to fill their arsenals with lipstick, nail polish, creams, and cleansers in their battles to meet the standards of ideal womanhood touted in magazines, newspapers, billboards, posters, pamphlets and in the rapidly expanding pinup genre. Scrutinized and sexualized in new ways, women understood that their faces, clothes, and comportment would indicate how seriously they took their responsibilities as citizens. McEuen also shows that the wartime rhetoric of freedom, democracy, and postwar opportunity coexisted uneasily with the realities of a racially stratified society. The context of war created and reinforced whiteness, and McEuen explores how African Americans grappled with whiteness as representing the true American identity. Using perspectives of cultural studies and feminist theory, Making War, Making Women offers a broad look at how women on the American home front grappled with a political culture that used their bodies in service of the war effort.

This publication sets out the gender equality duty code of practice for public sector managers in Scotland. One of its principle aims is to help the public sector understand and address the different needs of women and men, leading to more user-friendly services, as well as making better use of the talents of both women and men in the workforce. The gender equality duty came into force in April 2007, and can be seen as the biggest change in sex equality legislation in 30 years, since the introduction of the Sex Discrimination Act (ISBN PGA 1975 Chp. 65, ISBN 9780105465751) itself, and also reflects the aims of the Equal Pay Act 1970 (PGA 1970 Chp. 41, ISBN 9780105441700), along with incorporating amendments made through the Equality Act 2006 (PGA 2006 Chp. 3, ISBN 9780105403067). The introduction of the duty forms part of a radical new approach to equality in general, one that places more responsibility with service providers to think strategically about gender equality, and help make Scottish public authorities meet the duty

The gender equality duty came into force on 6 April 2007. This is the result of the amendment of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 by the Equality Act 2006 (ISBN 9780105403067), and it places a statutory duty on all public authorities, when carrying out their functions, to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment, and to promote equality of opportunity between men and women. The duty is intended to address the fact that, despite 30 years of individual legal rights to sex equality, there is still widespread discrimination and persistent gender inequality. This code of practice gives practical guidance to public authorities on how to meet the legal requirements of the general duty, and the specific duties required of certain authorities by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (Public Authorities) (Statutory Duties) Order 2006 (SI 2006/2930, ISBN 9780110752822).