Women in the Military

Are you willing to help serve our country? You are going to be reading about the pro and cons about women in combat. supporters of women in combat believe that women should serve in combat because women are just as competent as men. Critics of women in combat believe that women are more emotional than men because the way our brains work. Studies found that women feel pain, make social decisions, and cope with stress differently.

Women in the Military is something that will take a lot of time because it has to start with people wanting to see women first and foremost as equal human beings who deserve equal opportunity in all aspects just like their male counterparts. People will have to be willing to set aside their old traditional views, so that they can begin to view Women in the military from a fresh liberal state of mind.

The benefit for women in this example is that since there was a need to expand women’s roles into the military, women we’re allowed many new opportunities that would not have been offered. Another benefit of allowing integration for women in the military is because it is justice; it is only fair that both sexes should be allowed to fight for their country. According to Yael Kidron, it is only “fair to allow women to take on physically challenging army roles,” and claims that women have proven that they are equal in the military because “you basically do everything like the guys: you work hard.” It is only fair for everyone that women are to be expected to do the same duties as men. On the positive side, both sexes can work cohesively because changes to the military have been undergone. Kidron claims, that women are not just as equally part of the support group alongside men.

Although women are not fighting on the front lines, they help in many different ways in the military such as being nurses and women Air force Service Pilots. In his career, General Martin Dempsey has noticed an improvement in the culture, discipline, and physical prowess since women first joined the military (Harris 2). Leon E. Panetta once stated that women are willing to fight and die alongside men, proving that everyone is committed to the job (Roulo 2). In November of 2012, four female soldiers planned to sue the Department of Defense because the “brass ceiling” was stopping them from proving they could fight (Harris 1). The American Civil Liberties Union and others supported them because they thought the military was discriminating against women (Harris 1).

I say women should stand back and fight for their rights. All women should be able to fight in combat because men aren’t always emotionally stable, to further support women’s rights and they are no different than men. Women should be able to fight in combat because men aren’t always emotionally stable. Men say women can’t carry their own body weight. Women would have to be able to do that to get whoevers hurt on the battlefield out of harm’s way.

Complaints that the army would turn... ... middle of paper ... ...the many accomplishments of women display the spectrum of their capabilities, society’s idealized view of them is too ingrained to change overnight. To this day women are too often seen as inferior objects that more sentient beings (men) must protect the purity of by any means necessary. In the military this was achieved in a wider range by officers who strictly limited the actions women took and the information they received. On a more intimate, but equally controlling level, female soldiers used homophobia and secrecy to gain freedom. Just as the women of today continue to do, women of the World War II era were born into and perpetuated a cruel and controlling world.

Drawbacks of expanding women’s roles in the military Society has placed strict gender norms on both males and females and these norms are suppose to be rigid and fixed. Yet, when women become were fighting for the right to be a part of the military institution, they were challenging the gender norms. Throughout the readings in our class, one main and recurring drawback of why women have been excluded from combat roles is because these women were challenging the social gender norms. According to Segal, it is difficult to include women into the military because of social construction of gender; women have to be perceived as changing to fit the military. Dowler claims as well that women in combat roles are “out of place” from the acceptable gender norms.

There are growing feelings in the United States that, as women are having more rights given to them that were previously restricted, women should be given everything that is offered to men. This is becoming very true in the military, where much sentiment is that women should be given the opportunity to serve in combat arms positions. Women are currently allowed to serve in combat support positions, such as military intelligence and air support positions, but they are not allowed to serve in positions such as infantry, armor, or field artillery. Many believe that it is time to open these positions to women soldiers and allow them to serve in the front lines of combat. Although women are currently allowed to serve in combat support positions in the military, women should not be able to serve in combat positions, because women do not have physical capacity to serve in these positions, would have trouble dealing with the emotional restraint involved in war, and could cause a decline in the morale of their unit.

Many argue that Special Forces can improve with women in the ranks. Activists protest that women and men are equal. Some officers declare that for women to reach top levels of command, the opportunity to serve in Special Forces is a necessity. Scientifically, there are statistics and studies that reveal that there are some women capable of enduring the stresses and endurance required of Special Forces soldiers. I agree that women should hold positions in Special Operations Forces (SOF) and can augment certain missions, but I do not believe women should be included as CMF-18 on a Special Forces Operational Detachment – Alpha (SFODA).

In fact, “‘combat exclusion actually exacerbates gender tensions and problems within the military because the fact that women can't be in combat arms jobs allows us to be portrayed as less than fully soldiers.’ Fully integrating women could therefore begin to address two major issues for the U.S. military: enhancing diversity and equality and also weakening the masculine culture that may contribute to harassment” (McKenzie). Women in combat roles are beneficial to their units and the United States military, who made the correct choice by opening up combat roles to women. Many countries have made this choice, some decades before, and they have not gone back which suggests that they receive a benefit from including women equally in their armed forces. A similar path lies ahead for the US because of the benefit women bring.