Introduction: Gender and Disability in the Two World Wars

This introduction explains the reasons behind this special issue, which is devoted to analyzing historically gendered experiences of war-related disability in post-conflict societies. It refers to a variety of multidisciplinary works on disability, gender, conflict, and transition theory to posit the special issue at the intersection of disability, gender, and war studies. It briefly describes the five articles composing the issue, while emphasizing their contribution to understanding the impact of the two world wars on the lives of men and women and on cultural ideas of masculinity and femininity in a variety of national and colonial contexts.