Women 's Roles During The American Armed Forces

Secretary Mr. Panetta’s decision to repeal the DOD policy preventing women from serving in direct ground combat units opened Pandora’s Box on the debate of whether or not women should be allowed to serve in specialties previously opened to males only. The narrative regarding the women serving in direct ground combat arms specialties was immediately high jacked by those sympathetic to women who have served in combat on a “nonlinear” battlefield, where there were no distinguishable front and rear lines. Additionally, many have rallied behind those women who have been able to demonstrate superior physical abilities, such as the two women soldiers that recently completed Ranger School. I would submit that neither accomplishment demonstrates that these women or women in general are the “best-qualified and most capable” to serve in direct ground combat arms specialties. This issue is not about what women should be allowed to do, it’s really about what are they capable of doing. The bias is not institutional, the bias is physiological.

The thesis of this essay is high ranking jobs remain closed to women of the military; due to the lack of military frontline combat or the exclusion of this type of training for military women. McGregor’s main claim is that restrictions remain on women even though they are now allowed to enter frontline combat.

World War II was the most massive and murderous equipped combat in the history of humankind. Working women, within and outside of the military, quickly became a crucial part of the US’ army forces during WWII. Women’s involvement evolved over this time and eventually led to women’s rights movements throughout the United States.

Women have been part of the military since the Revolutionary War such as nurses and clerical workers, (Street, Vogt and Dutra, 2009, p. 686). While these women did have typical female jobs for that time period, women were of great help because without them, the men who were wounded may not have been taken care of as well and the paperwork may have been backlogged and unorganized. Since then, women have slowly made more entrances in the military in other areas than just medical and desk work. Currently, women occupy 80% of the military occupational specialties and 90% of the careers offered in the military, which is a huge jump from where women were back in World War II or even just a decade ago, (Weiss and DeBraber, 2013, p. 37). With this

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.

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

For soldiers, women being in the military has been a common thing. But females being in combat units is rare. Female soldiers deal with male soldiers hassling them around about the fact. Women should be able to have the same rights as men do. Just because we are more “sensitive” and “emotional”.

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

In Molly M. Ginty’s article “Military Women: All Guts, No Glory” she explores the issue of women who serve in the army and them being included in combat with males, and the inequality they have been through serving in the U.S Armed Forces over numerous years. With new legislating, and there being new roles for females there is always going to be the debate if women should be in combat with men or not. For years’ women who would join the army were just nurses and secretaries, because of people thinking that they are not fit to be in battle. Even though they all go through the same training, the women were put in position to practically serve those who were in battle which were the men. So personally I do agree with women being able to serve

It wasn’t until World War II that large number of women served in all branches of the military. There were about 300,000 total that served during World War II. After the war, women were discharged from the service. In 1948, the government passed legislation allowing females in the military. However, the government set a top limit to the number of women serving in the military. No more than two percent of the military force could be women. The percentage of women in the force remained about one percent except when it rose to two percent during the Korean War. The two percent ceiling was removed in 1967. However, the number of women in the armed forced did not significantly rise until the start of the All-Volunteer Force in 1973. The

accountable for caring for all the kids and old people. Many of the women were involved with voluntary work, either in industry or in voluntary organizations (Howie, 2010). Women were allowed to work 16 hours a day and perform men’s duties. However, women were paid less than men. Besides, they were discriminated in the workplace. Thus, women played an important role in the war effort, although their position in society was still less valuable, comparing with men’s position (Howie, 2010; Gillis & Hollows,

This debate on whether women should be in military combat roles or not, has no in-between, one either believes women should go into combat or one believes women should not go into combat. The two extremes sides of this argument offer numerous reasoning as to why they stand with their beliefs but the reasons which make a valid argument are as follows. For the positive side which believes women should go into combat, say that this decision should be dependent on a person’s skills and abilities to perform under these condition rather than their gender identity. Aside from this, there have been many recent developments in warfare technologies which accommodate to females bodies and many of these women can meet the physical and mental standards that are required for combat fighting.

Women have fought decades to be seen as equal to men. All though all these good things happened because of woman’s movement. However, this doesn’t mean women must play male roles in the twenty first century. Placing women front line in combat is setting them up in a field full of grenades that represent distress emotion and the lack of physical strength that in the end will have a negative effect on females and their fellow soldiers they are fighting with. There are specific roles that only a male should take. For example, protecting and serving our country. Women should have equal rights, women have the disadvantage of fighting in combat where their safety is on the line and their physical biological and emotional restrictions will hold

Ninety percent of all military occupations in the military include all genders, but the top ten percent of roles are excluded to women. Women have already felt the misogyny with unequal pay and unfair treatment by men, now women have to face the discrimination for fighting for our country. Women should be able to serve in the front lines because it makes the military stronger as a whole with more diversity, women in other countries fight on the front lines and women have made significant contributions in the military so far.

I am in favor of equality for women, just not when it comes to women in combat. There have been women in society doing heroic things since the Revolutionary war. There have been brave women in war posing as men so they could fight. There are a select few women who could handle war and combat. The negative aspects of women in combat outweigh the positive. Women should not participate in military combat. However they may join the military and served in traditional roles such as nurses and office staff. The difference between men and women is women are physically weaker, they have vital personal needs, and they attract male troops.