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Society's expectations of gender roles
Society's expectations of gender roles
North america women issues in military
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Women and the Draft Men have always been looked upon as the leading sex. Looking back through history women have been the ones who take care of the home and children, while men are the ones who work and go to war. However in recent years there’s no doubt that women have become much more equal in the work force. Nevertheless men are still the ones who are forced to fight our wars when the time calls for it. Many think that women should be entirely equal to men having their choice to be drafted taken away but the fact is that they are physically at a disadvantage, too emotionally oriented, and the increase of female presence would have a more negative impact in the military in the way of social interactions. In the military physical strength and endurance is a major element to nearly every task. Having endurance and sustainable strength is very vital in many instances but most importantly in the combat zone. Men are physically stronger and can tolerate more than women naturally. Hypothetically if there was a situation where a troop was injured and needed to be carried out of a fighting zone it would make more sense for a man to carry the troop out because they can tolerate the weight more easily then a woman. Women are built to have children, and while they are capable of heavy lifting and have remarkable endurance, it is a different level than men. Looking back men have always been hunters, gatherers, ultimately being the ones who do all the physical work. After decades of these physical life styles that men have endured and the homemaker life style women have come to obtain it is clear that the order of nature has spoken. The normality of women being the only ones that can produce children and men gain strength more easil... ... middle of paper ... ...be authority is hard for most to see and accept. If a woman were in a commanding position it can be tough for men to take orders. It’s not what people have come to know in our society so change is hard to accept in this case. If women can’t be listened to and can’t be respected they can’t have the choice to be taken away to be forced into the military where they already don’t want to be and have a hard time being accepted. With society’s past and present it is apparent that women are still not equal even if they have the title. Men are observably stronger and have a different mentality in situations than women. This is not to say that women should not be in the military but they should have the choice that way they can accept the responsibility and train themselves mentally and physically to achieve the responsibility and respect needed to fight for our country.
Women should be allowed in combat roles in the armed forces because they are just as capable as men. To begin, women such as Shaye Haver and Kristen Griest, graduates of the Fort Benning Ranger School, have shown that they can meet the same physical requirements as men. Nevertheless, these women still weren’t allowed to serve in combat positions despite the rigorous training they completed that involved grueling obstacles they had to complete all while carrying 100-pound gear. Does that make any sense to you? It didn’t to me and it certainly didn’t to women like Sgt. Patricia A. Bradford who said “If you have to be able to lift a certain amount of weight in order to do a certain job, then the weight is not going to know whether you’re male or female.” (Women at Arms: On the Ground.). In fact, in some instances women have proved to be even more
Should women serve in combat positions? The Combat Exclusion Law has dealt with this question since the 1940’s. As time continues, the question remains. The military has increased the percentage of females allowed to be enlisted and commissioned in the services as well as increasing the positions allotted to them (Matthews, Ender, Laurence, & Rohall, 2009). Keenan posits “women have served with distinction in … the Revolutionary War…as volunteer nurses and were only occasionally in the direct line of fire…four nurses evacuating 42 patients while the Germans bombed their field hospital…” (the DoD Combat Exclusion Policy) pg. 21.
From this, supporters of women joining the draft argue that their involvement in the draft should also reflect on their increasing involvement in the army. However, those who oppose women being apart of the draft argue that equality between men and women is an unrealistic mindset. This is proven in the New York Times with Catherine Rampell’s when she writes “Women earn 92.2 cents on the dollar of what men earn” (1). This is a statistic from 2011 that shows people that complete equality between men and women has still not fully been reached. Furthermore, those opposed to women and the draft argue that if America has not completely reached full equality within the genders, then neither should the army.
Women should not go into hand-to-hand combat because of all that heavy protective gear weighing their bodies down. The protective gear is extremely heavy and is not the kind of gear a woman should wear. The protective gear is made for men who have upper body strength and is able to carry it on their backs across the battlefield. If a woman tried to sprint across the battlefield with all of that extremely heavy gear latched onto her back, she wouldn’t make it. Women also have a lower aerobic capacity than men. Just imagine if women had to run with heavy gear on and was extremely exhausted from running. Only one or two women can do that, but most women cannot. Men on the other hand have a much higher aerobic capacity than women. Men can run without getting exhausted easily and they have enough strength to carry all of the heavy gear on their backs. The better the soldiers are, the higher chance the team has of winning.
...nto a situation of high testosterone, women are not considered to be a threat. Military research now however, has shown that women have the physical stamina to endure battle and do not disrupt the cohesion in the male units and can also be mentally tough without breaking when under fire. Women are not only discriminated against in the military, they are also discriminated against in Philosophy, religion, and Popular Culture.
“It is not probable that the greater strength of man was primarily acquired through the inherited effects of his having worked harder than woman for his own subsistence and that of his family; for the women in all barbarous nations are compelled to work at least as hard as the men” (234). Men may usually be stronger than women but it’s not necessarily always true. Women could be just as strong as men if the cultural and beauty standards were different and if it was what women desired. This idea has evolved from social factors being implemented more than evolution or biology.
Statistics from a poll that was took from USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll in 2005, 27 percent of citizens think women should be able to serve anywhere in Iraq, 32 percent think that they should serve as support for ground combat units, and 44 percent think women should not be assigned to infantry units (“Attitudes Toward Women in Combat” #10). Many people are concerned that the women will be used as a prisoner of war, lack physical strength that will disable them in a mission, or wouldn't be equipped to handle stress situations. Women have proven themselves otherwise. Data from the 2011 class at West Point shows that 50 percent of female Cadets, a select group, passes the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) using the male standards. A percentage of women are just as efficient as men. New research suggests that women can enhance combat performances of the military without disrupting...
Trying to hold the homefront together while there was a war waging abroad was not an
From nursing soldiers to cross-dressing and actually fighting, women have played a crucial role in America’s victories over other nations. And as our country has become more progressive in its ideology, and the legislation of that ideology, women have been allowed to do more and more to help our country. In recent history, their role in the military has become much more than just that of a nurse or maid assisting male soldiers in battle. This fifty-fifty makeup, says Struecker, is not beneficial due to the fact that the average male far outperforms the average female in battle training (Struecker).
One of the most important factors that shows how women are not as effective as men in combat situations is the obvious fact that they perform on different physical levels. Other important points are the fact that women are much more susceptible to injury than men. These factors could weigh heavily for th...
Lastly there are some concerns that society has about women in combat. It is implied that men can endure a lot of strenuous physical activities were as a woman may not. For example, there may be an issue were a fellow solider may need to be carried to safety, a woman opposed to a man will probably not be able to handle this strenuous task, and because of that standard may have to be lowered to accommodate female applicants, therefore making it easy for anyone who might not be fit to fight in combat roles accepted into those positions. There is also a fear that women can be captured by the enemy and be tortured. This a fear of both men and women but because women are at risk of encountering a misogynistic enemy the chances of rape goes up.
Gender integration in the military has always faced the question of social acceptance, whether society can accept how women will be treated and respected in the military. Throughout the history of the military, our leadership has always sought ways in how to integrate without upsetting the general public if our females were captured as prisoners of war, raped, discriminated or even blown up in combat. My paper will discuss three situations pertaining to the first female submariner, fighter pilot and infantry graduate. I will also discuss some of the arguments that male military leaders and lawmakers opposed the integration of women: lack of strength, endurance, and the disruption of unit cohesion. I will end this paper with my personnel experience as a female NCO responsible for other female subordinates within my command and share some of their experiences while deployed in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They feel that a women is not physically or emotionally handle that kind of job. In Donnelly article as a women I have to disagree with man or anyone else that feel women can’t handle the military emotionally or handle the job. Speaking for all women that have had kid if we can deal with having a child and men. That’s the problem military quick to under estimate what a women can do.
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.
As claimed by Major Eleanor Taylor,” Women have to be able to be given the same opportunities as men...in order to have the same opportunities they have to be exposed to the same risk.” In other words, Major Eleanor taylor asserts that women in the army should be put into the same danger as men while in combat especially front line duty. Even though some people believe women are not physically or emotionally stable, women should be allowed to fight in combat because women who are physically capable of serving in the military are easier to recruit and a gender force makes the armed forces stronger.