From Heroines to Hyenas: Women Partisans during the Greek Civil War

Abstract

The participation of women in armed combat was arguably the most striking feature of the Greek Civil War (1946–9). The advent of civil conflict marked a shift in the gendered division of military labour, as the female ‘novelty’ soldier of the earlier Resistance period (1941–4) gave way to the fully integrated female combatant. This article seeks to examine the circumstances which lead to such high levels of female representation within the ranks of the partisan army (the Greek Democratic Army), but also to explore the symbolic functions of this volatile imagery in the context of intense struggles to define Greek national culture and identity.