Women In The Vietnam War

Women were a heavy presence in the Vietnam war. While 1/3 of the men in the Vietnam were drafted; most of the women volunteered. Many women wanted to escape having to settle down and get married and some had something to prove to their families. While others just wanted to help their country. 90% of the women were nurses, but they were also air traffic controllers, physicians, intelligence officers, clerks, among the positons. In the 1960’s, American women took a role and supported their country in many different ways.

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

In the past, WWII and WWI, women were very dominant; they had to take care of their children, do all the chores and also had to cook the food. During WWII, women had to take place for the men (First world war.com). The war changed the life for all Canadian women. When men went to fight, women were called upon to fill their jobs, and this included many jobs that were previously thought of unsuitable for women. Women were called up for war work from March 1941(Women during World War II). The roles of the women were positively impacted by World War II, because they had the potential to re-enter the workforce, control the farms and join the military for the first time. Taking control of the military was tough, but women had shown that they could work together and handle the situation.

The Vietnam War was a war divided. The United States was equally against and for it, creating a hostile environment for returning veterans. While many Americans were treating the Vietnam soldiers with contempt, they may have been unaware of the mental battle that 11% of Vietnam veterans were fighting (“PTSD: A Historical Perspective”). While soldiers were in Vietnam, they experienced many horrifying situations that contributed to their post-traumatic stress disorder. One-third of the American army that served in Vietnam was drafted, which occasionally created a hostile environment. While in Vietnam, warfare was very different than previous wars fought. Soldiers were often isolated and fought in the jungle. There were many occasions where a soldier would not even know where the enemy was (Badalucco). The Vietnam War was the war that eventually brought a name to the mental disorder that many soldiers and everyday people have fought for years.

There is little official data on female Vietnam War veterans, because the military mostly favored recording the achievements of men in the army. The Vietnam Women's Memorial Foundation estimate that approximately 11,000 women were stationed in Vietnam from 1962 to 1973. Only about ten percent of women served as soldiers. The ones who did were normally treated as second class soldiers; their role was perceived only as a helpmate instead of a soldier, and they were often put in dangerous situations prior to having any proper military training. The other ninety percent of women served as military nurses, physicians, air traffic controllers, intelligence officers, and clerks. Some women who weren't in the military served in Vietnam in the Red

During World War I, women stayed at home, aided the Red Cross, and volunteered with churches and civic groups to collect donations. Women 's roles in World War II challenged the traditional roles of homemaker and caregiver. Women took on a more active role in the military and held positions alongside men. They were trusted with more responsibilities and offered more freedom than they had during the First World War. Women held more traditional roles in comparison to World War II when women took on a more active role in the military. They also got voting equality with men during World War II.

Women served an important role in WWII. They not only took the challenge and stepped up to take the places of the men off fighting in the war to work in factories, but they also fought side by side with those risking their lives and fighting for their country. They were needed everywhere during the war. There were an unbelievable amount of job opportunities for women during the war and many supported the brave acts of voluntary enlistment. “‘A woman’s place is in the home’ was an old adage, but it still held true at the start of World War II. Even though millions of women worked, home and family we considered the focus of their lives” says Brenda Ralf Lewis. Without the help of those women who were brave enough to

Women were important during World War II because of all of the different jobs they did. During World War II women lost loved ones including their husbands, boyfriends, and their sons (Reynoldson 5). They might have also lost their fathers in the war. They could have even lost their mothers. What are some of the roles women do in World War II?

The women during the Vietnam War have been mostly forgotten because of the attention that has been given to the men’s military recognitions. However, women have always played a part with the terrifying and bloody war. According to the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation, more than 11,000 military women were stationed in Vietnam during the conflict. Also, Independent surveys estimates that the number of women, both civilian and non-civilian was between 33,000 and 55,000 (Carlson). Despite these high numbers of women in military, they however, struggled to attain equality. The great efforts that the women have done as nurses and entertainers for the soldiers were mostly ignored and discredited.

During the Vietnam War, many challenges were faced by the Vietnamese people no matter what side they fought for. In Hayslip’s book and in the movie Regret to Inform, we are able to gain insight into some of the struggles the women faced during the war. The men went to war and left the women with nothing but a number of challenges. Problems arose because the women were being abused and tortured. To make matters worse, a lot of the women had to deal with more difficulties after the war was over. These are just a few of the struggles that women had to face during and after the Vietnam War.

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

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

Many people wondered how many women served in, there were 7,484 women served and only 67 died, 8 nurses and 59 cillivans. Civilian women and women soldiers participated in the vietnam war and some even became famous for it.

It is not an easy task to pin down where exactly this effeminate, homosexual, deviant and ambisexual posturing of glam rock comes from and neither it is this paper’s sole aim to fulfill such a meticulous job. Nevertheless, some thoughts on its genesis are worth mentioning. Mike Kelley links these postures to the anti-Vietnam War movement and to the resulting “full-scale empathic connection in white youth for "otherness" in general.” The greatest Other, he goes on to say, was women; “if America's problem was that it was militaristic, patriarchal, and male, then the antidote would be the embrace of the prototypically feminine. Radical culture of this period is dominated by displays of femininity as a sign of resistance —femininity, and male homosexuality

McCormack talks about the Vietnam war, and how it has affected women, surprising most being psychologically healthy. This source is a journal from the URI database, written from University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom. This will be useful in my essay, because I assume that when they are talking about how veterans are coping, they are mostly referring to men since men mostly have served in war. It is interesting to see this experiment only on women, and how they have coped with the experience 10 years later.