Daniil Tatsenko
Professor Matyakubova
ENG 201: Composition 2: Disciplinary Investigations Exploring Writing.
21 February 2020
Females Serving Time
Wars have been a staple of human history. They have been ongoing for all of our history and will indefinitely continue in some shape or form, no matter what. Due to the physical and biological dispositions of man-kind, men have been the dominating demographic in wars throughout human history. There are, of course, some anomalies in history that will point to a group of women participating in wars, but they are far in between all the other instances when men were the majority in wars. However, due to the ever changing views of women in our society, and the gradual advancement of women within it— a topic arises which has more stark implications than other issues. Should women have a more active role in the United States’ military? The topic can seem to overtake you with ideas on how to address it, and internal-contradictions from trying to conclusively settle the matter. Women serving in the military has been a major focus of debate ever since World War II, during those times women were working factory jobs, fueling the war machine. In contemporary times, women don’t need to fill in factory spots, they don’t need to assist the military’s efforts. In our Western society, women have the freedom of choice, freedom to choose their careers, and make choices for themselves, thus a choice to serve in the military.
Women make up a small portion of the US military, however that is not to say that it is negligible, far from that. The number of women who were serving active duty in 2010 was 167,000, which was a huge increase from the Vietnam era statistics. Women occupy 14% of the enlisted force within the US, and 16 percent of commissioned officers are women. The number of women who are commissioned officers is greater than that of men, when compared with the respective gender population in the military (Patten & Parker).
The graph above illustrates the growth of enlisted women from 1973 to 2017. The progress seems very promising, as more women see the military as a viable career option, a way to give back to the country, and a way for them to grow. This graph does offer a particular view on where women seem to concentrate within the US military. It is seen that the Air Force, Army, and Navy, all have higher concentrations of women than that of the Marine Corps.
The Marine Corps is known to be the most break-neck branch all across the board when it comes to the US military. It has a lower population than all the other branches, and so the lowest amount of women as well. The Marine Corps is also known to be the “first to fight” branch, being sent out ahead of all the other branches, usually only supported by itself. The branch sees the most front line combat, and has a lot of infantry jobs up for grabs. Women have a large presence in some professions, such as administrators, medical, supply, and a minimal presence in occupations dealing with war-time— such as infantry, and gun crews (Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Personnel and Readiness). The next bar graph shows the number of men serving in military occupations compared to women in those occupations. Concluded from the graph is that women serve predominantly in support roles in the military, away from the physically tasking jobs.
Women are not entirely to blame for these gaps however. According to the statement by the Marine Corps Commandant in 2015, the USMC has openly stated for the exclusion of women from competing for certain front-line jobs. The report suggested that the USMC would not have mixed-gender units, as they are not as capable as all-male units (Baldor). This report was very controversial as it went against many of the ongoing policies in the Department of the Navy. Letting women into combat related jobs was pushed for by the Secretary of the Navy. The Secretary went as far as allowing women in some special operations jobs, such as the SEALs. The commandant of the Marine Corps had a point he was reaching for during his report. According to an experiment the USMC conducted, it was determined that women shoot less accurately than men, and in situations where an extraction of a wounded troop was required— “there ‘were notable differences in execution times between all-male and gender-integrated groups.’” (Lamothe), which conflicts with the position of full integration for the US military. However the experiment was conducted with females and males of different body weights, and different levels of average body fat. So the study can be said to be inconclusive since the subjects in the test varied in weight and body fat.
However due to how modern warfare is conducted, the concepts of frontlines is an outdated one. Take for example, the U.S. 's wars in the Middle East, which have not been fought conventionally. The wars have involved proxies, and rogue militant groups which gave no clear sense of territory, thus having no definitive frontline. Megan H. MacKenzie defined this as “irregular warfare,” and argues that women that serve as supporting roles still risk their lives in combat. According to MacKenzie “As irregular warfare has become increasingly common in the last few decades, the difference on the ground between the frontline and support roles is no longer clear,” signaling that women have already been serving in positions that can be considered frontline, exposed to hazardous environments. Women in modern times serve alongside men, and participate in activities in foreign lands that subjects them to hostile fire. Women have had more jobs open up to them in the United States Army, because the branch has reconfigured many jobs women served as supporting roles, as combat-related jobs. Thus giving women more freedom in their job selection in the military. These policy changes are seen as more realistic and egalitarian to proponent’s of MacKenzie’s perspective. MacKenzie has summarized a policy the Army employed in recent times, seemed to be contradictory:
Under this system, forward support companies, which provide logistical support, transportation, and maintenance to battalions, are now grouped together on the same bases as combat units. Since women are permitted to serve in such support units, a major barrier designed to keep them away from combat has almost vanished. (MacKenzie)
MacKenzie acknowledges the fact that women serving along with personnel with combat jobs, should be considered as a combat job itself.
Opponents of an argument such as this are mostly based on women’s biological differences to me, and experiments and studies done that show women to not be as capable as men in physically demanding tasks. Proponents of an integrated military, point at the differences between the needed Physical Fitness scores between men and women. For example, in the report Women in the Military: Should combat roles be fully opened to women? By Marcia Clemmitt, she cites that the qualifying times it takes for a man to run the designated 1.5 miles, is significantly different than a woman’s qualifying time. The disparity is between 13 minutes and 15 seconds, and 15 minutes and 15 seconds, respectively. This gap in physical achievement poses a problem to many of those skeptical of full integration, because soldiers know that the battlefield does not take gender into account— the battlefield takes absolute measurements
As our society progresses further and further towards more equality of choice, more women are expected to choose the military as their career of choice. Women will have a growing role in the military as their numbers within the service continue to increase. To remove the existing restrictions on women’s freedom of choice, the military would need to lift the bans and exclusions of women in all jobs and aspects of the military. With women filling in more roles within the branches of the military, be it supporting roles or combat jobs, the gender gap will continue to shrink— and our society will come closer and closer to an egalitarian one. Women will have the final discretion when deciding their careers within the military. Equality of opportunity will be offered to women in the future of the US’s military.
References
Patten, E., & Parker, K. (2011, December 22). Women in the U.S. Military: Growing Share, Distinctive Profile. Retrieved from https://www.issuelab.org/resource/women-in-the-u-s-military-growing-share-distinctive-profile.html
Baldor, L. C. (2017, August 7). Officials: Marine commandant recommends women be banned from some combat jobs. Retrieved from https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2015/09/18/officials-marine-commandant-recommends-women-be-banned-from-some-combat-jobs
Lamothe, D. (2015, September 10). Marine experiment finds women get injured more frequently, shoot less accurately than men. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/09/10/marine-experiment-finds-women-get-injured-more-frequently-shoot-less-accurately-than-men/
MacKenzie, M. H. (2012, November 1). Let Women Fight Ending the U.S. Military's Female Combat Ban. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/297562675_Let_Women_Fight_Ending_the_US_Militarys_Female_Combat_Ban
Clemmitt, M. (2009, November 13). Should combat roles be fully opened to women? Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com.ez.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2009111300&abstract=false
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