In July 2012, the forces of the Assad regime withdrew from northern Syria. Since then, the predominantly Kurdish population has established self-governing cantons that operate with near complete autonomy from Damascus. Due to a string of victories against the Islamic State, the Kurds now control a contiguous swath of territory linking the border region of northern Syria all the way to Iraqi Kurdistan. These victories are due in part to the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Women’s Protection Units (YPJ). Both the YPJ and YPG emerged out of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). When compared to the PKK and other national liberation struggles, both the internal praxis and larger goals of the YPJ/YPG are novel in two respects: regarding their gender politics and their aspirations for statehood. Given that the YPJ was founded very recently, this paper represents one of the first academic analyses of the Kurdish women’s militia. The YPJ is of interest not only because of their success in combating the Islamic State and their unprecedented level of mobilization of women, but because it is also a window through which to understand the larger goals of the “Rojava Revolution.” The data for the paper is based on three trips to the region, including a survey that was conducted with a unit of the YPJ based in Kobani. Because the YPJ represent a “hidden population”, random sampling is impossible. Instead, I used a respondent-driven sampling technique. Despite these limitations, my survey data provides basic demographic information about the women who have joined the YPJ, which until now has been lacking. One of the surprising results of the survey is that most respondents emphatically say that they do not want to emulate the de-facto state structures that have been created in Iraqi Kurdistan. Instead of aiming to establish an independent Kurdistan, the movement aims to establish autonomous structures at the local level based on the principles of democratic confederalism. This includes a bottom-up democracy, cooperative economy, gender egalitarianism, and environmentalism. I argue that the shift away from the goal of establishing an independent state is not merely tactical but reflects a shift in political strategy and ideology. Secondly, this shift can in part be explained by women's previous experience of marginalization within the PKK and other national liberation struggles.