Radicalizing Her: Why Women Choose Violence

An urgent corrective to the erasure of the female fighter from narratives on gender and power, demanding that we see all women as political actors.

“Violence, for me, and for the women I chronicle in this book, is simply a political reality.”

Though the female fighter is often seen as an anomaly, women make up nearly 30% of militant movements worldwide. Historically, these women—viewed as victims, weak-willed wives, and prey to Stockholm Syndrome—have been deeply misunderstood. Radicalizing H...