The issue of women in the military has been a contentious issue. Feminists have been argued women are being discriminated against since they are not involved in active combat roles. In 1948 the president Truman signed the Women’s armed services Act authorizing women to be involved in support services and not actual fighting roles. The women should not be involved in the field though because of several reasons. First of all in the field there is bound to be romantic interest development between the men and women. This causes distraction in the men and they are not able to concentrate on their work.
These emotional entanglements may lead to emotions such as jealousy, possessiveness, obsessions and fights among the men leading to the demoralization of the male soldiers. It can also cause undue stress to the soldiers. The army commander’s role is to ensure the men are emotionally stable. When women form part of the troops a lot of time and attention is given to the issue of ensuring gender equality (Pierce, 112). It is also evident that men and women are not endowed with the same physical capabilities. The physical standards and criteria in recruiting soldiers used to be clear and the same measurements when recruiting the men. However due to incorporating the females the standards for women were set at different measurements. This is because the men are weaker physically than the men. The trainings both the men and women go through are different due to their different physical capabilities. There are women who argue all should go through the same training so that the men will learn to take the women seriously.
They contest the gender segregation saying it promotes gender inequality. This is however impractical because of the levels of their different strengths. The fact that women are weaker physically means they become a very costly liability on the front lines. The level of reliance on them is at a lower level for them than for the men. In terms of physical fitness a man is required to run two miles in 11 minutes, perform 82 pushups and 87 sit-ups. For a woman though she is expected to run the miles in fifteen minutes and do 58 pushups and 85 sit-ups. Less than 5% of women are able to perform what the men are expected to do. Women will have problems carrying heavy equipment and carrying a wounded colleague out of the battle lines. To shut our eyes to these truths is a disaster.
There is also the issue of pregnancy. With an army unit that has several females, when three of them are on maternity leave it causes loss of morale to the other soldiers. Pregnancy should not be used as an excuse by the women to avoid continuing to serve in the army. In fact Navy John Dalton stated that the state of being pregnant was a natural event and did not in any way make someone medically incapacitated. In war also when the women are captured they are more vulnerable than the women. The men will be physically tortured however for the women in addition of being physically they can be tortured. When the men are in the hands of their enemies they scared of the women being tortured and end up divulging secret information. As a result of all the mentioned factors women should not be involved in front-line combat.
Work Cited:
Pierce, Morgan. The case for women in the military. Helium. June 22, 2009. Web. Accessed 5th
March, 2011. http://www.helium.com/items/1492240-women-in-combat
