Women in the Resistance

The majority of women who fought in the Resistance did not take combat roles. This was due more to a cultural bias against them than anything else. Though they were writers and distributors of news, and to a lesser extent, spies, few women were given assignments such as shooting a Vichy official or sabotaging a bridge. (Jackson, France: The dark Years, P. 490)
The only women now recognized to have taken a leadership role was Marie-Madeleine Fourcade who headed a rescue and information part, and later a leadership role for the Alliance Network in England.
However, the soldiers, mostly communists and Spanish hiding in the dense forests and mountains that bordered Spain, were more willing to take on unorthadox recruits. There, some women joined the Spanish and French communists fighters, who would go on to become one of the most successful independent resistance movements. (Collins, Weitz, Sisters in the Resistance, pp.65-67)

(A photograph of Spanish and French Maquis soldiers, including a woman)