Women Serving in Combat Positions in the US Military
The first policy to affect women’s service in the military was implemented in 1948 through the “Women’s Armed Services Integration Act.” The act changed women’s participation in the U.S military by offering them a permanent status. However, the inclusion of women was still restricted in areas of deployment such as on navy ships and aircrafts in combat. Women have been involved in the military for over five decades, but their direct engagement ban in combat positions is an issue of great contention for policymakers, scholars, and military personnel and women studies researchers.
The exclusion of women from direct combat was instituted as a result of a 1977 “Combat exclusion policy.” This policy was responsible for opening many military occupations that were earlier closed to women, but it also officially locked out women from combat occupations (Norris, 2007). A great deal of experience has been currently gained with the deployment of women into military action in various foreign nations such as Iraq, Haiti, Somalia and Afghanistan-just to mention but a few. Further closure of women’s potential engagements continued in 1982 when the (DCPC) “Direct combat probability coding” was used to identify positions which were to be exclusive to male personnel (Sheppard, 2007).
The coding system which is still up to date makes estimations of the chances that a certain position occupied in the military may get involved in direct combat and using the probability estimate the personnel determines whether such a position would be fit for women. This observance has locked women mostly out of many positions in the army, navy, marines and left them with the air force as there largest position provider (Burreli, 1996).
The marine corps has the smallest number women, because most many marine roles involve direct combat. However, as of 1994 more positions were supposed to be opened for women in air defense artillery battalion, assignment to combatant vessels, and (MAGTF) “Marine Corps Air/Ground Task Force.” However, there are some jobs that are still closed to women, such as the infantry, tank and combat engineer units. The navy has also made space for women in combat ships such as the aircraft carriers and assigned women to roles such as combat logistics.
However, it has still locked out women from various positions such as those involving submarines, guns or missile crew members and sonar technicians. The army greatly restricts women positions to a few positions such as the attack helicopters and keeps them off special units that are closely deployed with ground units as well as special units, armor and infantry. However, they may be allowed to take up positions in combat logistics (Sheppard, 2007). Contrastingly the air force has the highest number of women that are deployed to various sections.
This is largely because a large number of air force personnel do not serve in positions that involve direct combat. The air force is actually barred from making selections based on gender factors. The air force actually opens all positions for women. Despite the fact that policies on the involvement of women in combat has ever been shifting, there has always been one consistent aspect in the whole debate and issue-the need to reduce the chances of women’s engagement in direct combat. This is based on reasons such as the inability of women to bear the gruesome task of the battle front because of their inability to sustain much fatigue.
Additionally, it is claimed that women may be easily tortured into revealing military secrets and their male counterparts’ efficiency on the battlefront may be reduced if women were involved. However, all this is based on opinion and no facts. As a result, there are various quarters that currently call for a repeal of some of these polices arguing that they are based on nothing more than cultural gender bias that has been cultivated from the past rather than any solid reason.
Advantages and disadvantages of involving women in serving in-line units
Women are said to lack the necessary physical upper body strength that may be necessary for most engagements in the front-line, additionally; they lack the psychological strength to bear the distress and trauma experienced in the battlefront. These are the major weaknesses that are cited for the justification of the exclusion of women from active roles in combat. There is an emotional weakness that is attributed to women that most quarters argue may not no work well for the battlefront.
However, opponents to these exclusionary measures hold that there no substantial prove to show that indeed women have such weaknesses especially; with regard to emotions. Women may also act as a potential distracter to men in the battlefront. This assumption is based on the cultural belief that men take the primary role of protecting female members of society, and this notion is engrained in our culture (Sheppard, 2007). As a result, it is assumed that women may cause distraction to the male members of the army in the battlefront.
If the notion is carried into the battlefield, the presence of women may be deemed as a potential cause of distraction for men that may feel obliged to take care of their female counterparts. The fact that expectant women cannot be deployed to combat is also another reason as to why women are not chosen fro some roles in the army, because their conditions may at times hinder their deployment, unlike men that could be easily deployed at any time and anywhere without such kind of worries. The differences in roles of women as mothers may not allow emergency deployments because they have child bearing and maternal responsibilities (DeYoung & Fenner, 2001).
Despite the supposed disadvantages, women still play an important role within the military through facilitating logistics and most administrative duties. The facilitation of services in these duties releases the number of male soldiers that would have been held within these positions to attend to other active military roles in the battlefront. Women also provide for deficits that may occur during enlisting. The shortages that result in man power can be refilled by women that are willing to enlist. Therefore, women an important source of the extra man power required within the military (Norris, 2007).
Conclusion
The recent engagement of women in military assignments in Iraq, Afghanistan and many other areas has shown that women may indeed find themselves in the middle of combat as war tactics changes and it becomes difficult to differentiate the frontline and any other zones of combat and war. There is a need for a comprehensive study to be carried to justify the exclusion of women, because most of the exclusionary reasons cited are actually not yet proven through any means. Therefore, if there is an urge among women to serve in combat and research shows no concrete reasons for their exclusion reviews should be made to include them.
References
Burreli, F.D. (1996),. Women in the armed forces, retrieved on 4th May 2011 from http://www.fas.org/man/crs/92-008.htm
DeYoung, E. M. and Fenner, M. L. (2001),. Women in combat: Civic duty or military liability? GeorgetownUniversity Press
Norris, M. (2007),. Roles for women in U.S.A military expand, retrieved on 4th May 2011 from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14869648,
Sheppard, C. (2007), Women in Combat. Department of the Army Civilian. Retrieved on 4thMay 2011 from http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA467244
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