The Bluest Eye Women's Rights

Uniting both male and female service members despite the different tasks each one faces, is one of the goals Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, author of Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield, faces to elaborate. The preface opens up by listing the set of events Second Lieutenant Ashley White completed before going out on a mission that would not only change her life but many female personnel serving for the United States Armed Forces as well. Other then uniting military personnel, another major goal or theme is educating the reader of affairs usually not displayed on the news. From my perspective, Lemmon had taught me something that I probably wouldn’t have found out, if it weren’t for this book. I have always been under the impression that women can’t serve on the frontline, but this is not until the introduction of Cultural Support Teams, or better known as CST’s. Using both a pathos and logos approach the author introduces some of the first females to make a change in combat history. In the end the author makes a clear statement to the public and male service members that women are competent both mentally and physically to serve on a Special Operations Mission.

Women only worked in their homes caring for their family’s, they never had the opportunity to work outside of their homes in places such as factories or in the government and they had no benefits within the house until the war began. The war

In the 1930s, The Great Depression swept over America and life was greatly affected. Poverty, unemployment, and homelessness grew in the East causing women to get more involved with the daily activities outside of the household. In “The Grapes Of Wrath” most men went to work, either in factories or on the lands, while the women stayed home. Eleanor Roosevelt became a key voice inside the White House, she took on an active role in programs and supporting women working on the home front. The hardships women faced during the Great Depression and women’s involvement in the labor force during World War II, led women to have a more independent and influential role in the family.

During most of the early 1800s and 1900s women have continuously been perceived to get married and be fragile. These women are said to be very dependent on a man, and unmarried women they had to find a perfect suitor in order to be considered a happy woman. Once the war hit, these old stereotypes would be broken. Women now had access to new life changing opportunities. The war gave women chances to get jobs they were never authorized to do and allowed them to stop being so dependent on the help of a men. It also gave them new duties, which would make them more responsible and treated differently. Even with these wars giving them more opportunities to do things, women still struggled with not being good enough and were limited in the amount

During present times, society has been created for the majority group. Society has been used in order to use forms of sexual norms and use of gender to shape our lives. Ultimately, ones identity becomes most important and directly correlates with the struggles and limitations they will encompass in life. Therefore, forcing people to choose between which identities will be less problematic. The dominant majority in society uses power and politics to run the lives of the less powerful. Even though all women are oppressed for their gender, some have more of a plight. White women have been known to use their power dynamics to oppress those of racial minorities, even when oppressed they. Women of color have been oppressed on all fronts in life. One can't fight fire with fire, but fight fire with water, fight racism with solidarity. According to Nadine Naber, “There are basics that many Western Feminist do not even address. So, I do get frustrated sometimes by some feminist who try to impose their agendas on others or try to dictate to other women what they should be concerned with (page 164).” In order to understand feminism for women of color, especially Arab and Arab American women, one must understand the class and race struggles. As the bottom of the ladder, the women of color feminist movement have suffered. Nevertheless, the women being silent from the movement. Therefore, we must reflect and understand the need for unity that will overcome the grip that is suffocating us.

To begin with, when looking back into history, we notice that the female gender was a barrier to certain privileges before the Women’s Right Movement. Yet, race and ethnicity always played a bigger role even before that. With both a person’s sex and race being ascribed characteristics, (9/27/2016) a person would assume similar lifestyles, but reality is far from that. Instead, we have social problems like women competing against other women just to achieve the same pay for the same job, as if competing against men wasn’t enough. To be more specific, I am referring to women of color working twice as hard to keep up with White women.

Equality was not only a struggle for people of color, but also women. Women were looked at as property own by their husbands. They were not a loud to get a divorce, own property, speak in public, work, or vote. In 1848, women fought for their rights at the Seneca Fall Convention. After many struggles, women finally got to make their appearance in the workforce. Along with that came many stipulations such as they couldn’t work as many hours or get as much as men. Women have fought very hard over the years for equal rights and freedom. Even though, women have more rights today, this is still a struggle. The National Organization for Women fight for equality for women today.

Thesis statement: I’d like to show that women are essential in the military. However, women should not partake in ground combat due to the physical nature of conflict, the emotional and psychological

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.

Women have been in combat since the beginning; when tribes fought over food and other materials. As centuries went on, women such as Joan of Arc and Bodecia fought as warriors. Women donned men’s clothing during the Revolutionary War, the American Civil War, and the Spanish-American War and fought before being discovered when hurt or dead. These women include Deborah Sampson she served for over a year in General Washington’s army and Molly Pitcher, a water carrier, single handedly kept a cannon in action after an artillery crew had been disabled. These women fought just as fierce in battle as any man.

A striking image found on an online article of a young woman with thick dark hair draped over her shoulder , dressed in combat gear , carefully clutching a rifle shows to us that women are just as involved in security and protection in times of war as much as men are. The representation of women within these militia groups disregards the perceived idea that men are more attached to violence and war than women are. Within society women are thought to be calmer, peaceful and of a more caring nature then men. Yes, this may be true in some cases but as shown in

While the soldiers are deemed “heroes”, the women are depicted as “victims”, that is weak and subordinated. This perpetuates women's lack of empowerment in peacetime situations and mask the reality of women’s experience of violence and insecurity.

Working outside of the home was rare for women at a time and was wrong if it was done. Women that did work outside of the home were not taken seriously being seen as less intelligent than men and less able to cope with stress (Harrington 16). They were “physically and intellectually inferior” so women weren’t usually allowed to face the outside world (Collins 4-5). Women were told if they worked, they would be taking jobs away from men that needed to support their families, but in reality most women who worked did so to support their families as well (Harrington 17-18). The unemployment rates surpassed men’s 4.7% to 2.8% in the 1960s (Ward 101). It was thought that women had no real ambition to work (Harrington 16). Though it wasn’t typical for a women to work, it was said the poor and single women should work until they were married (Chafe 21). Even then it was a stretch for a woman to work considering single women were seen as prey in the workplace (Nies 15). The usual jobs women were stuck into were teachers, nurses, and secretaries (Kesselman 31). Even if qualified, women couldn’t work high-level federal jobs (Nies 46). A lot of the time, women wouldn’t even receive credit for the jobs they did (Povich 78). Not only were women stuck in jobs they didn’t enjoy, but they were also paid less and were not provided with health or retirement benefits (Harrington 18). They were being denied the right to show potential in what they did and felt restricted because of it (Senker

Women have been judged, disrespected, and have been victims to stereotypical people who treat them as if they are not even human beings. Women often try and escape the degrading role of what others perceive them to be, but only those who are strong enough manage to break through the barrier of stereotypes. Those who have not found the strength and courage are left to endure the blasphemous positions that are sought out for them. Women of color, without a doubt, have encountered far more challenges and obstacles in their lives that others can only dare to imagine. People see women as weak and fragile, but they should be thought of as strong and powerful. Women do not get the respect they deserve and should not put up with the amount of disrespect they receive.

A war zone is peopled by soldiers manning tanks and firing missiles, generals strategising and statesmen negotiating the cessation of hostilities. These actors tend to be predominantly male. Women are largely seen as victims of war, mourning the dead, tending to the household and caring for the children while their men go off to fight. If patriarchy is the systemic suppression of a woman’s agency whereby her “natural” role is described as being nurturing, passive, vulnerable, in need of protection by male saviours, then war creates perhaps the most heightened and intensified state of patriarchy possible. I will first look at how the discourse of war reinforces gender stereotypes and the marginalised role women have historically played in militaries. I will then look at how the changing nature of war has adversely affected women, specifically by the use of rape as a tactic of war.