Dealing with Social Conflicts in the Military

Women have been fighting alongside men on battlefields for centuries upon centuries, giving their greatest fight to lead their team to victory. Although women are given this opportunity, direct ground combat amongst women remains against the law till this very day, allowing a gender to define what a female can, or cannot do. The human race continues to evolve every day, yet a simple discriminatory law that decides what a woman’s capabilities are without being aware of just how empowering that specific woman is is the same as it first was. Despite the idea that women do not meet certain requirements in order to take place in combat units, women continue to provide an endless amount of support to men on battlefields, bringing a completely

Men have always been looked upon as the leading sex. Looking back through history women have been the ones who take care of the home and children, while men are the ones who work and go to war. However in recent years there’s no doubt that women have become much more equal in the work force. Nevertheless men are still the ones who are forced to fight our wars when the time calls for it. Many think that women should be entirely equal to men having their choice to be drafted taken away but the fact is that they are physically at a disadvantage, too emotionally oriented, and the increase of female presence would have a more negative impact in the military in the way of social interactions.

In terms of modern-day combat, women do not have an equal opportunity to survive."(Messay, 3) Some argue that it is a women 's right to be in combat, but anyone will agree that equal opportunity does not play part in combat. "Feminists and their supporters want to gender-neutralize the military be incrementally ditching common sense policies. This latest study, which claims that women can be trained to be like men, contributes to this misguided ideology, weakens the force structure at its core, and puts America 's military personnel in peril." continues Lt. Col. Maginnis. (Messay, 3) When we try to force and shove women into dangerous situations, we are ignoring their rights instead of protecting them. The dropout rate for women is higher than for men. Leading the dropout rates are white women with an average rate of 43%, followed by black women at 33% and Hispanic women with 31% (Park). This can be directly pointed to the physical demands that a women faced in basic training.

Feminists and women’s activist groups would have us believe that women are equal in strength, skill level, and in every form as men. Some women are attempting to get into the front lines of combat using lines such as: “it would increase the number of available soldiers”, “women can be as strong as men”, “there won 't be any

Through the deaths and the injuries, through the explosions and gunfire, through the heartache and brokenness, women have been serving in the military one way or another. Since the beginning of time, women have been fighting for their rights. They fought for their right to work, they fought for their right to vote, and they fought for their right to be in the military. Beginning in the Revolutionary War, women were allowed to join the military as nurses and support staff. Since then, they have gradually been able to do more tasks and jobs that the men do. Today, the conflict is whether or not women should be allowed to fight in military combat. The argument is controversial, and will more than likely be a never-ending debate.

There are many different arguments from various feminist groups, politicians and even average Americans. Many of these individuals have never experienced day to day life in a war zone and generate their opinions based on social concepts developed in the safety of a free country. The primary argument I have against the integration of women in direct combat roles, are the physical characteristics of women verses men.

Historically, military service and fighting in combat have only been available to men, but recently there has been debate about women serving in military combat. In times of war in the United States, men have generally fought as soldiers while women in the

Many countries such as Israel and Russia have allowed women to serve in combat roles in the military; however, this has not always been true in the United States. Throughout history, women have had an active role in war time. The United States has documented cases of women disguising themselves as men in order to participate in combat as far back as the Civil War. It would seem that women have as much desire to serve as men, but in what capacity? This is a question that not only the United States has struggled with, but is a continuing debate around the world. Today, we see many more opportunities for women to fully serve with their male counterparts in countries like Israel and Russia. The United States has conducted research into the effectiveness of expanding the role of women into combat. Women have proven that they are able to withstand the demands of military life and the United States Army recently had two female Army Rangers graduate. But to understand where we are now, we must look back on how this increased confidence in females in the Service began. Possibly, the greatest and most visible contributions were during World War II.

One study (Binkin & Bach) found that many NATO and several WARSAW PACT countries employed women in combat roles during World War II. Russia was reported as using military women on the front lines. In Israel, where they are actually conscripted, women have also experienced armed combat. (Binkin & Bach) found that in the first phase of Israel’s war of Liberation, one out of every five soldiers was female and they shared equality in both offensive and defensive battle situations. Holm found that some 7,500 military women served in S.E. Asia during the Vietnam War. She maintains that these women proved the modern American military woman is fully capable of functioning effectively in a military role in a combat environment, even under direct hostile fire.

Now there is a move under way for full female equality in the fighting forces. One quarter of U.S. Navy jobs are still off limits to women still today. On April 28, 1993 Secretary of Defense Les Aspin announced a policy to open up nurse specialists and assignments to women in the armed forces. The policy means that women will no longer be excluded from military specialists simpily because the jobs are dangerous. It opened up combat aircraft to women. It instructed the Navy to open additional ships to women. In November Congress signed legislation repealing the law barring women from serving on combat ships.

Since 1901, women have served in some form of the military, however, dating back to the American Revolution women have had an unofficial role. Women have had and will continue to have an important role in the military, the question is whether women should be allowed to occupy specific combat positions. Traditionally women have not been allowed in combat occupations, but recently these restrictions have been somewhat lifted, making certain occupations available to women. Despite the lift complications arise from women being in combat vocations and it’s not just because of the physical differences, there is also the increased risk of sexual assault. Due to the detrimental impact on the military, soldiers, and society, women should not

When it comes to combat assignments and the needs of the military, men take precedence over all other considerations, including career prospects of female service members. Female military members have been encouraged to pursue opportunities and career enhancement within the armed forces, which limit them only to the needs and good of the service due to women being not as “similarly situated” as their male counterparts when it comes to strength or aggressiveness, and are not able to handle combat situations.

Women have been participating in the United States military since the Revolutionary War, where they were nurses, maids, cooks and even spies. They played vital roles in order to keep those fighting on the front lines healthier, and even a more important role in keeping commanding officers informed with private information stolen from the other side. Although the Revolutionary War took play in 1776, the first law to be passed that permanently stated that women have an official place in the military was in 1948, almost one hundred and seventy-two years later. Since that time there has been a lack of true growth when it comes to integration of females in the military. In 1994, a law was passed that tried to prohibit women from being assigned to ground combat units below the brigade level. Women are excluded from more then 25% of active combat roles within the military and only in 2013 was the ban lifted which was the final barrier to allowing women into all active roles. This has been a huge step in the direction for women being considered as being equal but there are still challenges that women face within the military. Ranging from sexual assault, discrimination, bullying, and other tactics, it is clear that for many, the military is still a “boys club.”

I realized that although in theory women in the armed forces seemed like a good idea, there are many obstacles that make that reality very difficult to achieve. In writing this paper I am not proposing that either position is more valid or right than the other. I only hope to present each side in an equal light to help others to understand the issues involved.

”Rule: Service members are eligible to be assigned to all positions for which they are qualified, except that women shall be excluded from assignment to units below the brigade level whose primary mission is to engage in direct combat on the ground, as defined below.