Donut Dollies: The Role Of Women In The Vietnam War

“Not all women wore love beads in the sixties.”(Officer, Nurse, Woman) Many women volunteered for their spots in the war; they didn’t just want to sit at home and do nothing. These women saved our husbands, sons, and brothers. They fought for their families in their own way. Women volunteers became heroes. Women were important to the Vietnam war from being nurses, warriors, and rescuing children from the terrors of war.

“Put on Some Perfume, Lipstick, and A Smile”—Women and Their Roles in the Vietnam War

The women during the war felt an obligation to assist in one form or another. Many

Throughout chapters 2 and 3 of Beyond Combat, the role of women having a pivotal role in the Vietnam War has mostly been characterized as what the American media called women as either “donut dollies” or “girl next door” within the Red Cross Supplemental Recreational Activities Overseas (SROA) program in comparison to Vietnamese women as sexualized and sometimes dangerous. To me the content in chapter 2 represented a domestic ideal that was rejected by American women when they made the decision to escape from both marriage and being dutiful to the family as well as potential crossing racial boundaries; whereas in chapter 3 it revealed and reinforced how the concept of American military women was challenged in regards to basic assumption about

Another thing that should prevent women to be in the draft is emotion. Women are complex beings with many chemical emotions causing them to react differently than men. Women’s brains perceive things in a more maternal way there for they consider circumstances differently. If a situation was complicated and needed an immediate reaction a woman might not be the right person to make an instant and thought out decision. She might reflect on it in a way that didn’t conjure what the troop needed at the moment. Women that are forced to be in war can easily get overwhelmed. Men can come through due to instinct after hundreds of years of being the ones who take care of the physical and difficult tasks at hand but women might not be as likely to react logically and can be easily inundated by the stress. Having maternal instinct rather than survival technique can be a vast disadvantage in combat causing emotion to be a handicap.

After the war, women were able to have more political power, and equal education for men and women was promoted (Goodkind, Rising Gender Inequality). One author describes how after all the struggles that women have gone through, they can finally be confident that they will soon arrive at their liberation (Ibid). The Marriage and Family Law of 1986 gave women more rights, regarding areas like equal share in their property, and the welfare (UNHCR). These steps were headed in the direction of equality between men and women. However, another historian debates that after the Vietnam War when North and South Vietnam united, women’s advocates were weakened as a result of the free market reforms in a non democratic political situation (Goodkind, Double

Many people in the 1960s and early 1970s did not understand why the United States was involved in the Vietnam War. Therefore, they had no desire to be a part of it. The Selective Service System, which was used to conduct the draft, had aspirations of directing people into areas where they were most needed during wartime. However, people took advantage of the draft system’s deferment policies to avoid going to war. Others refused induction or simply did not register. There were also people who left the country to escape the draft. The Vietnam War proved to be an event that many Americans did not agree with, and as a result, citizens took action to elude the draft entirely or to beat the draft system.

In her book The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990, author Marilyn Young examines the series of political and military struggles between the United States and Vietnam, a nation that has been distinctively separated as the South and the North. Young chooses to express the daily, weekly, monthly progresses of the affairs collectively called the Vietnam Wars, focusing on the American interventions in the foreign soil. She seeks to provide an answer to a question that has haunted the world for years: What was the reason behind the United States interfering in the internal affairs of a foreign country in which it had no claims at all? Young discloses the overt as well as covert actions undertaken by the U.S. government officials regarding the foreign affairs with Vietnam and the true nature of the multifaceted objectives of each and every person that’s involved had.

The role of race and gender in the United States have been a constant social and cultural struggle, but for male and female service members in the U.S. Armed Forces during the Vietnam War of author Heather Marie Stur’s book "Beyond Combat: Women and Gender in the Vietnam War Era" when she focused more on the Cold War era policies. While her emphasis is primarily on Americans in Vietnam, the framing chapter on Madame Nhu as Orientalist dragon lady. Similarly, she considers the image of the "girl next door" in need of protection in relation to the actual positions of donut dollies nurses and WACs in

During the Civil War, women helped soldiers by rolling bandages and creating care packages, as well as assisting in other small, though vital, tasks. World War I followed this pattern. But never had women’s aid included assisting with tasks traditionally accomplished by men, until World War II. Women had been told all through the Great Depression, “Let the men have the jobs! Stay at home!” and women, for the most part, had listened. Now, suddenly, the men were

Many people question if women went into the war because of patriotism or because they lacked other opportunities. Women responded to the call differently depending on age, race, class, marital status, and number of children. They switch from lower-paying female jobs to higher-paying factory jobs. While patriotism influenced women,

In the midst of debating whether or not to reinstate the draft, the question of whether the women should be included in the draft is up in the air. In my personal opinion, I believe that women should be included in the draft, since we're all considered equal. Opponents of women being in the military might argue that women might have to leave a family behind or they are not physically fit. In other countries, women are drafted into the military right after they are finish with schooling.

There were many who wanted to join not only the army but as well as the navy. In the course book on page 718, it mentions that 2.8 million were drafted and 2 million volunteered and of these 4.8 million men 370,000 were black Americans. I did some research and found an article titled, “U.S. Congress passes Selective Service Act”, written by History.com Staff. In this article, it talks about the Selective Service Act, which was responsible for the drafting of the 2.8 million men. It wasn’t just men that served, women participated in the war effort. The war led to the American ideals of “freedom” and “democracy” expanding to women. In my opinion, these ideals thrived between 1914 and 1920 due to the war. Women gained the right to vote

For over fifty years, Selective Service and the enrollment prerequisite for America 's young men have served as a reinforcement framework to give labor to the United States military. Women were excluded from being participants in the military draft or selective service based on gender something that does sound well at this age and time. Being that social, political and economic aspects, women ought to be involved in serving their nation. This paper explains more about the draft, reasons and why women should be included in the selective service.

In the third chapter of this documentary we get a closer look at the unfortunate situation in Vietnam. They brought in Gabrielle Union a very well-known actress to highlight the oppression of woman and lack of education in Vietnam. Once again, we see Nick make a value assumption as he talking about trend of girls in Vietnam dropping out of school at a lower grade then their male counterparts. He says this is “because of this Asian son preference”. I do understand that they throw some logical points behind this rational statement but at the same time he is making a massive assumption when he makes a stamen about the values of all the people in Vietnam. I am convinced that not everyone in Vietnam values boys over girls, it’s just not probable.