Invisible bodies of war: British servicewomen on covert operations in Northern Ireland

Abstract: Women were employed to operate covertly with British security forces and paramilitary organisations during the Troubles in Northern Ireland (1968-1998). However, the experiences and legacies of British servicewomen on conventional and covert operations during the Troubles are notably under-researched, even in comparison to recent scholarship on women in paramilitary organisations. This paper explores the politics of visibility on military 'front lines' through the construction of women covert operators as invisible bodies of war, considering how this informs understandings of gender dynamics and the construction of (gendered) knowledges about war. The article makes both an empirical and theoretical contribution. Empirically, it gives voice to several former women operators based on in-depth qualitative interviews detailing the experiences of a group of service personnel who have been largely marginalised from the dominant (British Army) telling of the Troubles. Theoretically, it uses this empirical evidence to elucidate the concept of the 'negotiated gender order'.

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