Talk:Soviet women in World War II

message: Not to start a fight here, but apparently Sabiha Gökçen beat the Soviet women to the punch, as the first female aerial combatant, in 1937.  If you call bombing rioters combat that is.  Surprised the heck out of me to.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.111.80.228 (talk) 22:36, 16 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Turkish Female Air Combat Cred 

message: The whole tone of the article is feminist, and seems to ignore the basic fact that the Soviets needed any warm body available to help defeat the Nazis, particularly in battles such as Stalingrad (Volgograd).  The article seems to treat this whole matter much in the same delusional manner as the modern American military, where it becomes an issue of career opportunity and promotions rather than how best the overall society can defend itself.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.49.20.187 (talk) 21:30, 13 March 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: "needed any warm body" -- not in USSR. Millions of needed bodies were deported because ideology trumped necessity. The question of women's roles is rather more complex, and clearly the IP commentator has not read any of the sources listed here.  Rjensen (talk) 01:48, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Quality of the article 

message: The article cites an overall figure of 800,000 women. It would interesting and useful to have statistical information (if available) on the numbers in military nursing and secretarial work in the armed forces, and the number actually used in combat. Information on the numbers working in signals and as mechanics (tank, other vehicle and aircraft maintenance) would also be an interesting addition. Norvo (talk) 02:34, 27 April 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Request for statistics 

message: Does anybody know where I can re-link these sources?  I clicked on both of them and they seem to be down.  Although, the Women and the Soviet Military one just says that it is unavailable so I'm not sure how long it has been like that or if it will be back up at some point.  ATASU (talk) 01:40, 28 January 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Links for Soviet Women Pilots in the Great Patriotic War and Women and the Soviet Military 

message: The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:
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thread_title:  A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion 

message: An example of how this could be damaging is that this figure has been used to support the idea that women commonly fought on the front lines.
According the the source that provided "https://www.academia.edu/26690480/Gendering_combat_Military_womens_status_in_Britain_the_United_States_and_the_Soviet_Union_during_the_Second_World_War", which says the following:
"Of the nearly 500,000 women who served as regular soldiers, ca. 120,000 fulfilled combat functions, such as snipers, pilots, tank-drivers, mortar operators, and machine-gunners." Citing "Krivosheev (2005)"
However, when you manage to find actual copies of "Krivosheev (2005) "О ПОТЕРЯХ СРЕДИ ЖЕНЩИН-ВОЕННОСЛУЖАЩИХ И ВОЛЬНОНАЕМНОГО СОСТАВА 1941-1945"
It says the following (translated):
"Of the recruits, 177,065 were deployed in parts of air defense, 41,886 in communications, 40,209 in the Air Force, 14,460 in women's formations and schools, and 18,785 in automotive parts, 28,500 for cooks, 41,224 for military medical units and institutions, 20,889 for the Navy, 7,500 for the NKPS railways, 70,458 in the NKVD, 29,259 in other (front, district and army) units and institutions of the Red Army."
This actually adds up to 490,000 which conflicts somewhat with the 800,000 number. 
I am assuming that the ~120,000 cited was 40,209 Air Force +  41,224 for military medical units and institutions + 29,259 in other (front, district and army), but even this is quite a stretch to describe "snipers, pilots, tank-drivers, mortar operators, and machine-gunners.".
Considering how widespread the belief is that ~800,000 women fought as soldiers, I think it's important that sources are checked before history is rewritten. It was extremely hard to get a copy of "Krivosheev (2005) "О ПОТЕРЯХ СРЕДИ ЖЕНЩИН-ВОЕННОСЛУЖАЩИХ И ВОЛЬНОНАЕМНОГО СОСТАВА 1941-1945" to fact check this.
MaxConfusion (talk) 08:28, 27 October 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  No mention of number of women fulfilling combat roles. The figure of 800,000 might be quite misleading without context of how they were distributed.