Between Dissimulation and Sensation: Female Soldiers in Eighteenth‐Century Warfare

In this article, women dressed as men serving in early modern armies are interpreted as the "normal exceptional" that allows the reader to trace the construction of gender roles and female agency as well as the cultural logic behind the standing armies of the period. Looking at examples from Germany, Austria, France and Great Britain, the "career" of the female soldier in eighteenth‐century warfare is situated in the field of tension between dissimulation and sensation. The disclosure of a hidden gender identity not only exposed such women to military justice but also opened up new 'tactical' possibilities for self‐fashioning and survival.