Gendered frontlines: British press coverage of women soldiers killed in Iraq

Abstract

The press plays a crucial role in image formation and information provision about female soldiers who die on battlefields. This article demonstrates how the UK press coverage of the death of four British service women stripped them of their identity as soldiers and minimised their accomplishments and level of military participation. It analyses how media discourse of war and military practices converged to reinforce cultural assumptions of war. The article argues that the nuanced coverage of the four women who died in Iraq within one year was a result of gendered mediation, which accentuated the femininity and masculinity dichotomy associated with the military; and underscored the gendered nature of war. The study shows that the gendering of the death of the women reinforced the entrenched marginalisation of women in war narratives.

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