War Women

"Fighters" tells the story of those women who have experienced battle at first hand. Dressed as women -and often as men -they have fought in the wars that have shaped our world, from the English and American Civil Wars and the Napoleonic Wars to the Two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East.

What "acceptable" roles have women taken in war that have still put them in the thick of the action? The ultimately tragic spy Mata Hari was the archetypal "femme fatale", the nun-like Florence Nightingale the selfless field nurse. Or were they? In Spies and Angels we look at the contribution of both women.

An abiding image of the home front is of a brave woman shielding a child in an idyllic cottage doorway, but what really happens when the men go to war leaving the women behind?

In "Words and Pictures" Kate Adie looks at how women have been used as propaganda tools in war and examines their broader contribution to the cultural images of armed conflict through painting, poetry, photography and writing.