women in combat by tamara parker, marine

Women in the military have been treated unfairly and disrespected for many years. This is a problem that may never be solved, but I feel that if military women were given the chance to be a part of the ground combat forces and fight in combat that they would be treated better and respected more. If women were treated in the same manner as men then men would have no reason the talk down to or disrespect the women. Most people feel that women could never keep up with men in combat because women are physically weaker. Most of the military agrees with this because women are held to a lower physical fitness test standard than men. Some people also feel the military should not allow women in combat because the men will feel the need to protect women. Others feel that putting women in combat forces will have an adverse effect on the unit cohesion. But, I feel the main reason people do not want women in combat units is because women will become non-deployable and take time away from the military due to pregnancy. Although these reasons for not wanting women in combat are understandable, there are some reasonable solutions that should be put into perspective before deciding against allowing women in combat. Military women have been disrespected and mistreated since women were allowed in the military. This will always be a problem, but I feel this problem can be reduced if the military would give women the same chance to prove themselves, as they do the men. Women deserve the right to fight for their country just like the men. If the military allowed women to fight in ground combat then there would be less reason for men to think they have a right to talk down to military women. “One of the most obvious concerns regarding women in combat situations is the fact that, on average, female soldiers do not possess as much physical strength as their male counterparts. The female skeleton is also less dense and more prone to breakages” (History). Although this is a proven fact, women can posses enough strength to keep up in combat. Through my personal experience in the Marine Corps, I have seen many women that could easily keep up with any of the men allowed to fight in combat. In other words, there are women who are capable of keeping up during combat situations. The military should make combat duty voluntary for women. That may not sound fair to some people because women are held to a lower physical fitness test standard than the men in the military, so why should they be able to serve in the same forces? This brings up my next point.
There is a widespread perception that the existence of lower physical fitness standards for women amounts to a "double standard." However, the physical fitness program is actually intended only to maintain the general fitness and health of military members and fitness testing is not aimed at assessing the ability to perform specific missions or military jobs. Consequently, DOD officials and experts agree that it is appropriate to adjust the standards for physiological differences among service members by age and gender (Wilson). So the next time men feel women do not have the right to stand next to them in combat because they have an easier physical fitness test, someone should inform them of the real facts. Another reason some people are against women going into combat is they feel that the goal of all men is to protect women, and that men will be so busy trying to do this that they will not do their job. I feel this is an understandable assumption, but it is not very reasonable. I feel this way because "On average each fiscal year from 1990 to 1996, 23.2 per 1000 spouses of military personnel experienced a violent victimization (Hansen).” Also, "The rate of violent victimization of spouses in the U.S. military has steadily increased from 18.6 to 25.6 per 1000 during the same time period (Hansen).” After learning these facts it is almost impossible to believe that it is a man’s goal to protect women. One of the most logical answers to this issue is in this great quote by Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, Civil War Medal of Honor recipient - "You men are not our protectors... If you were, who would there be to protect us from" (Walker)? People feel another issue with women in combat is that they will have an adverse effect on the unit cohesion. Unit cohesion is the bonding together of members of an organization in such a way as to sustain their will and commitment to each other, their unit and the mission (quoted in a 1995 Naval Postgraduate School study by Earnest G. Cunningham). When I was in the military we were always taught unit cohesion meant that we all worked together like a family, and the more we acted like a family, the better the unit would perform. Since when does a family include only men? According to Captain Cynthia Mosley, commander of an Army combat Support Company that was in the thick of the action during the initial ground attack into Iraq: "When the action starts every soldier does what they've been trained to do - nobody cares whether you're male or female. It's just - can you do the job?" That is what I completely agree with and I believe it is the most logical way to look at it. During Desert Storm, in combat units and combat support units of mixed gender, women performed as well, and the women’s units performed as well as other units. There is enough evidence to state that, in foreign units, mixed-gender units performed more effectively than single gender ones. The women worked harder to gain approval in the team and men worked harder not to be outdone (Women). The final and main reason I feel people do not want women in combat is that they could become non-deployable and take time away from the military due to pregnancy. The reality is that, yes, some women [are] undeployable for reasons due to pregnancy --- as [are] many more men undeployable for substance abuse, alcoholism, court martials, sports related injuries, off-duty fight-related injuries and pending charges of domestic violence (Wilson). Also, the time-served the military has lost due to pregnancy is always one of the biggest arguments used against women going to combat. Yet as far back as 1975 the Navy discovered that men lost 190,000 days to drug rehabilitation and another 196,000 days to alcohol rehabilitation - almost twice the "time lost" by women to pregnancy. Pregnancy reports and surveys have been generated over and over, and, by 1990, speculation was rampant that pregnant women were costing the military a proverbial fortune in early returns from overseas bases. Well surprise, surprise - another study showed that the average cost of an early return for a man was $7,174, while the average cost for an early return for a woman due to pregnancy was $2,046. Among medical evacuations, AIDS and substance abuse accounted for up to 8 percent, pregnancy for barely one percent (Francke). There are always going to be reasons for both men and women not being able to go to combat; I do not understand why women’s reasons have to stand out. If the military would allow women to fight in ground combat forces it would cut out a lot of the disrespect and mistreatment towards military women by their male counterparts. Women would be given the chance to prove themselves, and to earn the respect they deserve. The military has many reasons for not wanting to put women in combat, but hopefully they will rethink their reasons and understand that physical fitness, men wanting to protect women, unit cohesion, and pregnancy may all be understandable issues, but there are many answers for these issues and they should be considered.

Work Cited Francke, Linda Bird. ““Myths, Fallacies, Falderol and Idiotic Rumors about Military Women.” 1996. 13 April 2009. <http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/myths.html> Hansen, Christine. “Domestic Violence in the Military Facts and Statistics.” militarywoman.org. 2001. 13 April 2009 <http://www.militarywoman.org/domestic.htm> “History of Women in the Military.” Wikipedia.org. 10 April 2009. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 13 April 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_military> Walker, Mary E. “You [Men] are not our Protectors” jameslogancourier.org. 26 November 2006. 20 April 2009. <http://www.jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=1051> Wilson, Barbara A. “Myths, Fallacies, Falderol and Idiotic Rumors about Military Women.” 1996. 13 April 2009. <http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/myths.html> “Women in Arms: An Air Warriors Viewpoints.” Womeninarms.com. 18 June 2006. 13 April 2009. <http://womeninarms.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/06/women-in-arms-2.htm>
Tamara Parker recently completed active service with the Corps and is now attending college. This essay was written as her final assignment for Mrs. Drumm’s (AKA Pirate) English 101.

“Tamara, YOU MAKE ME PROUD!” --PIRATE

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