Creating GI Jane: Sexuality and Power in the Women's Army Corps During World War II.

Leisa D. Meyer. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. Pp. 260. $29.50, hardcover.

The military role of women has been a source of contention since the earliest military operations in America's history. While the basis of the controversy has differed at times, ambiguity has remained a constant. In Creating GI Jane, Leisa D. Meyer details the process of women's formal incorporation into the U.S. Army and analyzes the creation and continuing construction of the "category of female soldier" during World War II.

The prologue frames the general theme of the book: the social construction of military service and of gender and sexual hierarchies. Meyer discusses the …