More than 238,000 US military jobs are currently off limits to women. How can this be in 2012, when so many women have served honorably in our armed forces? Because American military women are still officially excluded from direct ground combat positions, though that rule has been whittled away in recent years as women now fly attack aircraft and serve on combat ships. New sex discrimination lawsuits are now challenging the idea that women can be kept out of ground combat positions. The ACLU is representing Marine Captain Zoe Bedell and three female members of the Marines, the California Air National Guard and the Army Reserve, and the nonprofit Service Women’s Action Network. These plaintiffs contend that modern warfare means there are no more front lines or safe places, and that women currently serving in “support” positions essentially do the same jobs as male infantrymen, but without the training and possibility for promotion.
One hundred and fifty women have died in America’s recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and over 900 have been wounded.
As is so aggravatingly common in modern civil rights law, the United States lags behind other first world countries in granting equality. Women are allowed in “close combat roles,” defined as “engaging an enemy on the ground with individual or crew served weapons, while being exposed to hostile fire and to a high probability of direct physical contact with the hostile forces personnel” in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Eritrea, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, South Korea and Sweden, Australia.
You can tell it’s time for a change when a policy is based not on a factual argument – no one contends women are unfit for combat – but instead on outdated stereotypes. Some say that male soldiers would chivalrously put themselves in harm’s way to rescue a fallen female comrade. But leaving no one behind – male or female – is the soldier’s battle cry. Just ask Air Force Major Mary Jennings, a rescue helicopter pilot who was awarded a Purple Heart for rescuing three fellow troops while under fire.
There’s no question in my mind that sex discrimination in the military in all forms will eventually be banned. Those who oppose equality are always on the wrong side of history. Weak arguments about women’s proper roles must fall given the importance of properly training women who are in fact in combat zones already, and promoting those who deserve it.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not necessarily those of Avvo.com.
4 comments
Doug
-Can't believe I read this hogwash. Not taking anything away from their sacrifice but 150 dead and 900 wounded, considering we've lost over 6000 and had over 50,000 wounded.
-Most of these women serve in support positions and aren't trained in infantry tactics? Where do you get your information, if they went thru basic training, they received proper training.
-No possibility of promotion? You know nothing about the military from this comment alone, whatever your job is in the military there are separate promotions and requirements for each job. Some Joe getting promoted in the infantry has nothing to do with whether or not Jane can get promoted in supply or whatever else she's doing.
- Not even going to touch the sexual assault issue or the different standards already in place for women in the military, though it is funny you don't want those equal.
Don
Would this also imply that all women would need to register for the draft now?
Barb
Respect is needed, but so is the male recognition of being a male. They do not think and have many varieties of differences than us. Women know they are surrounded by most men. They join to mingle, serve, feel power, prove something within themselves or to others. Choose one or more. The fact is as Gay don't ask tell distraction to the military. Just do your job and be safe. Stop all the politics of personal preferences. People that complain after signing up for an environment like this cause so much military harm. Morale and stress, anxiety, and all. You go in then want to change hundred of years the way it has been. You want to force your being female on these men who do not want it. Let them fight and have something to call their own. Females are selfish. You butt into sports, get in an all girls sport. Leave men alone. Let them have peace. They have been giving their lives much longer than us. Now you want to pressure them into accepting you as one to deal with. Cant change their feelings of who we are and can and cannot do, and they are not super human/ neither are their sex. This is asking thousand of men to accept you after they are born true males and taught that way, and they are to protect us, not fight along side of them in foxholes and wars. Stop the insanity of attention and millions spent in legal fees and time. Plus the security of this country which is put into kayos and mental behaviors. They do not need to worry about this. They will be mentally forced to protect and put them more at risk and our country. Besides the hanky panky you present. Not all but more than enough. You women that have men in the military, I did once before this, but fight this crap. You might be receiving him back in ways you hate, or destroy you. There should be a line drawn. Stop the craziness. Or, let the military make you sign papers that delete them from your female responsibilities while in closed quarters where ever. The pregnancies, the mentalities of women. We are not men. They are attracted in ways to women when away. This for at home moms and girlfriends, and kids and families to not suffer this. Give them respect. When do we stop trying to change others to accept us. Created as a woman and a man. Same as police, fire, etc. We cannot do as a man. Women searching men, already bad enough for a man to do a female.Look at the female Marine brutally attacked in the medial and military about Guatanomo incident. Look what it did when she tried to be one of them in toughness and whatever else. Poor woman. Now father is not there either.
Jack
It has everything to do with the male protection instinct, To protect and respect a woman. The male soldier on the front line would be constantly -instinctively protecting the woman, out of respect not for any other reason, it is just the way we are. It would be akin to a woman going out and fighting a tiger with her baby child next to her on the ground. The woman would grab the kid and get out of danger. Men on the front line are there to fight. Distracting the focus with protecting the woman soldier next to him would weaken his focus and have bad results. No man wants to see a woman shot, beat, raped, harmed. It is just the way it is.
Former Soldier