Book Review

Kayla Williams’, Love My Rifle More Than You, is unlike any war memoir I have ever heard of or read. Williams was part of the 15% of female soldiers in the U.S. Army. She shares her experiences in the war in Iraq in a courageous way. Everything she says in the memoir is straightforward. She does not hesitate to say anything about what it was like to be a female in the war. The memoir was not only written to inform society of what life was like being a female in the war, but it was also written to empower women everywhere. It seems as though Williams wrote this in order to address the issues that females face being in the army as a major minority to males. She is fearless in the way that she does not try to sugarcoat any of her experiences. She tells every story and aspect of the army exactly how it is without leaving out any details.
One reason why Kayla William’s wrote this memoir about her experiences in the U.S. army is to inform the public about the hardships of being a female in the army. Females are in the immense minority. She was one of the 15% of females that fought in the war against Iraq at the time. On the very first page of Love My Rifle More Than You, Williams digs straight into her struggles with being a female in the war. On the first page, she talks about how your only choices, when you are a woman in the army, are to be a ‘slut’ or a ‘bitch’. This could be taken in many different ways. Some may take offense to this, but Williams intention was not to offend anyone, but rather to talk about her experiences with as much reality as possible. The reader is able to understand the way Williams writes right off the bat.
One major aspect of the hardships for females in the army is the sexism towards women. On page 18, in Williams opening chapter, she says, “Sex is key to any woman soldier’s experiences in the American military.” She then goes on to explain that since there are such a majority of men, many of them are desperate for women to sleep