The drive to explore local understandings of revolution by women to uncover how they participate in and survive revolution arises from both feminist theoretical and Zimbabwe historical perspectives. The narrative of revolutionary transformation for women that has emerged from feminist theoretical debates requires a local focus on women's experiences of revolutionary wars in order to uncover the nature and extent of rural women's participation. Similarly, the narratives of participation found in the historiography of Zimbabwe's war of liberation (1966–1980) suggest that the failings of explanation are not only confined to feminist theoretical debates but also mark historical accounts of the Zimbabwean liberation struggle.

Part I Women and Revolutions: The Quest for a Narrative of Liberation

How do rural women understand and participate in revolutionary liberation wars? An attempt to answer this question can be found in the body of literature emerged from the late 1960s onwards examining the revolutionary struggles of decolonisation that had paved the way for the newly independent states in Africa, Asia and Latin America. More particularly, writers turned their attention to the experiences of the oppressed, inside and outside of such struggles, and sought to uncover the history of subaltern or marginal groups such as the peasantry. Women, as a category of social actors, have also been the subject of attention through the rise of feminist research in the expanding field of studies that explores women's relationship to war and revolution.