Enlisting Masculinity: The Construction of Gender in U.S. Military Recruiting Advertising during the All-Volunteer Force

Enlisting Masculinity explores how the U.S. military branches have deployed gender and, in particular, ideas about masculinity to sell military service to potential recruits. Military service has strong historical ties to masculinity, it was presented as male duty and service to protect the nation, home and family. Conscription in the U.S. was introduced for the first time during World War I, reintroduced during the Second World War and continued until 1973 during a period when masculinity was widely perceived to be in crisis and women's roles were expanding in the U.S.. The central question the book asks is whether, in the era of the all-volunteer force, masculinity is the underlying basis of military recruiting appeals and, if so, in what forms? It also asks how women fit into the gendering of service. The book argues that masculinity is still a foundation of the appeals, but each branch deploys various constructions of masculinity that serve its particular personnel needs and culture, with conventional martial masculinity being only one among them. The inclusion of a few token women in recruiting advertisements has become routine, but the representations of service make it clear that men are the primary audience and combat is their exclusive domain.