This presentation examines gender as one of the most frequently encountered “frames of war” in ancient Egyptian textual and visual representations of military campaigns in neighbouring lands. Enemy men are metaphorically represented in texts as women (widows or “harem” women) or passive “back-turners”, while captive men are sometimes depicted nude, with flaccid penises, in contrast to Egyptian ideals of masculinity. Changes in the gender conventions governing siege and battle scenes are also evident over time. Although foreign women are occasionally depicted as victims of violence in Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period battle scenes from elite private tombs, violence against foreign women is never depicted in New Kingdom representations. Similarly, women and children are absent from prisoner-of-war scenes on New Kingdom temple walls, despite textual evidence that they were taken captive. Administrative records further reveal that gender structured the classification of captives and animals taken as plunder, with males and females divided into age-based subgroups. Elderly men and women, however, are absent from both lists of war spoils and visual representations of captives, despite occasionally appearing in depictions of besieged towns in the Levant and settlements in Nubia. Foreign women are also frequently depicted actively defending their towns. Although such representations challenge assumptions about women as non-combatants, they must be understood within the broader context of battle scenes. By examining these contrasting representations and practices, this presentation explores how gender shaped both the representation of warfare and the construction of Egyptian ideals of masculinity.