Women in Military

Today’s wars are not fought by hundreds of thousands of men storming up a beachhead or being dropped from hundreds of planes in the middle of the night. Today’s wars are fought with highly independent specialized units. These units include women serving in supportive roles. The units that are involved in the traditional first line of defense continue to be comprised of all male soldiers. Women and men are physically different. The army has conducted hundreds of studies that have shown that on average, women have less muscle mass, are shorter, and weigh less than men; which put them at a disadvantage while completing tasks that required high levels of strength and aerobic capacity. When comparing the percentages in the physical capability of males versus females, the upper five percent of females are equal to the median of the males. This means that in combat the men will be able to sharpen their skills and become stronger while the women are already at their peak potential.

The fact is that women have a severe disadvantage in ground combat while facing the same dangers as men because of the training and preparedness when compared to men. Women have a lower aerobic capacity which means that that they cannot carry as much and as far as men. This also means that they are more susceptible to fatigue. It is impossible to keep women from combat but that doesn’t mean that the military needs to place them there. The truth is that most women are not physically cut out to handle a lot of situations faced in combat. This does not mean that women cannot serve their country and be treated as equals in the military; equality is a process. Women can easily be trained to be a mechanic, an engineer, or even a truck driver. They do not have to be limited to the traditional cook and nurse roles. This is a new age for the military and women’s rights. As the military continues to evolve women could be serving on the front lines with the men, but today the men will be standing alone.

World War II was a conflict on a scale that mankind had never encountered before. Because additional people were required to support the war, the military turned to what was, at the time, one of the most under-used resources in the country: women. During this experience, women proved that they can take great responsibilities, and their contributions had a positive effect on the war. Although the jobs they were first given were not of such great importance, and although there were a lot of people against women in the military, women showed that they are capable of dealing with difficult situations.

Generally, women in the military served as contract workers, nurses, dietitians, typists, clerks, drivers, communicational specialists, and other kinds of jobs that didn’t involve front-line combat and Special Forces positions. They got a chance to work as weather observers, cryptographers, radio operators, parachute riggers, bombsight maintenance specialists, and control tower operators. The army was and still is a place mostly considered to be taken by men. Even though they didn’t fight in combat, women’s contributions to the war were significant. By doing most of the jobs that didn’t involve any dangerous missions they allowed men to concentrate mostly on the combat itself. Therefore their contribution to the war was highly significant and vital to the war effort.

A lot of people oppose women being a part of the military. One of the main reasons is that women are physically incapable of handling a combat mission, and since the goal of the military is to win wars with the minimum possible loss of American life, it is more important to have capable soldiers than to have the politically correct policy. But things like integrity, moral courage, and determination are as important as physical capability and have nothing to do with gender. There are a lot of cases where women have shown more courage, determination, and spirit than men. Moreover, the women’s right to pursue whatever career they want to pursue is a civil rights issue. Many people also claim that men are braver and possess the killer instinct, unlike women. These are some of the myths about men and women in the army that have been proved wrong many times.

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