Women in the military

[SourRoses]

Oh.. well, here is what I wrote earlier in my original response to the OP. I think it sums my opinion up on that part fairly well.

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[Peaches Lee]

Totally for it, combat and all. If you can get the job done, male-female, doesn't matter.

 

[Wifezilla]

My husband was in the army. We have talked about this issue a few times. There were women soldiers hubby considered pretty useless. They were also male soldiers in the same category. There were also several females he said he would love to have with him in a fire fight. They were just that smart, strong and able. It was an individual thing.

My son is having the same experience (also Army, just got back from a tour of Iraq).

So, in my opinion, if you can meet the job requirements, your gender is irrelevant. And yes, the line between combat and non-combat roles is pretty blurry.

As for drinking you under the table Boyd, if you only knew me 20 years ago! LOL Of course, being a 6' tall amazon, I my have also given you a run on the strength thing too

 

[Dunkopf]

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When was the military like that, besides the movies of course?

 

[Dunkopf]

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You forgot the barefoot part.

 

[GiddyMoon]

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Not all military woman are married.

I never said they had to be or were.

 

[teach1rusl]

I served for 6 years active duty, and am female. I feel that expectations of women should be the same as for men, meaning that they should also serve in combat. I think that if a woman is married, and her spouse is also active duty, then only one should be assigned to combat at a time...

 

[mandelyn]

I was an Army wife for awhile, and I think the decision, as unrealistic that it is, should be on a case by case basis, and recruitment should come with a personality and psyche test.

Female 1: Joined under dubious reasoning, where else could she find a husband with a steady paycheck? There she is sunbathing topless or less on top of a building in the sandbox, for all the helicopter pilots to see. The first one drunk at a barracks party, seeking out favoritism through flirtation, ect.

Female 2: Working hard, no nonsense, up to her armpits in grease getting vehicles fixed. One of the guys, basically. Give her a gun, and you better stay out of her way. If you make some skeezy comment to her, she won't tell the command, she'll whoop your butt.

Female 3: Always professional, great at her job, always early for formation, never any trouble, reasonably useful in most situations, really good example of a soldier. Being an all around good person, she's the topic of a lot of false gossip made up about her, from other lesser soldiers trying to belittle her or make her look bad, when really no flaw can be found.

Of course, those descriptions are really generalized. But I've met plenty of female soldiers who were great and everything a soldier should be, or the kind of woman you don't want in any sort of professional situation around men. From award winners to home wreckers, the military takes all kinds.

Then you have the men, and how they respond to females in the military.

Male 1: Hates the fact that women are around. Throws around derogatory statements about it, completely sexist and chauvinistic. Says they need to stay home or be nurses.

Male 2: Doesn't mind it at all, always polite and professional to women, loves it when they are up to the task and perform well, but will complain about the trouble makers and stay away from them.

Male 3: LOVES women in the military, first to offer them drinks, talks sweet to them, make passes... basically the male version of Female 1 above. Will flirt right back so long as his command can't hear him.

Many more personality types of course. But, just take those 6 types of both male and female, and stick them all in one unit, send them overseas into close quarters and a high stress environment, and see what happens.

Drama and gossip, that's what. A whole other can of worms than if women were not in the military. Same as any other group of people of various genders, back grounds, and personality types all thrown together. Female 2 hates Female 1, Female 1 has it out for Female 3. Female 2 and 3 have a coffee together and complain about Female 1. Male 3 joins in and makes lewd comments about Female 1 to Female 2 and 3. Female 2 laughs, Female 3 blushes and doesn't say anything. Male 1 comments about how women shouldn't be in the military, female 2 pops him on the side of the head. Male 2 defends women in the military. All see Female 1 flirting with someone higher ranking, Male 2 laughingly retracts his defense. Male 3 makes a comment about how he needs to get promoted so that women like Female 1 will flirt with him. Everyone laughs. Then they all split up and go about the rest of their day.

But it's not fair to ban women from the military, anymore than it is to not accept someone because they're a flirt and prone to making... poor decisions. It may or may not catch up with them. Depends on who they suck up to. Male and female alike. The amount of stuff that gets swept under the rug is insane. Everything from PT scores, sexual harassment, failed drug tests or rigged "random" drug tests... unreal.

Worse still is when a female like Female 3 is assaulted or worse and it's made to look like it was her fault. But let the same thing happen to female 1 in a different chain of command, and all heck breaks out and she's the victim when really it was just her crying foul after a drunken night of lord only knows what and she was making false accusations about someone she didn't like. Or whatever.

There's just... so much.... that goes along with having women in the military, because of all the different types of people thrown in together, living right on top of each other, day in and day out. Take a bunch of strangers and stick them in dorms. College, only worse.

I'll tell you what though, it would be reality TV at it's finest. Or worse, depends on how you look at it I guess. Same thing with all the spouses... the he said -she said, the rivalries, the cliques, the drama, the fakeness... bad. Just bad. The show Army Wives doesn't do it justice as far as the day to day stuff. But when the soldiers are all deployed and the base is empty except for the families... we have our own drama and issues, and then the rumor mill coming from where ever they are too... with facebook and email and instant messengers... you've never seen gossip fly so fast over 5,000 miles. What Female soldier 1 did with spouse A's husband, how Female 2 over looked spouse B's husband for some award or something, all the fake stuff about female 3 being told by Female 1 to Male 3 and back to Male 3's wife, to her circle of friends, and back again over seas and spread around some more, until the original rumor isn't even recognized anymore, it's morphed into some whole other thing.

The game telephone, on steroids. Would the gossip stop if you removed women from the military? No, because those soldiers are still married.

If soldiers didn't marry, would it stop? No, since men can be just as bad as women.

But I've seen rumors believed to the detriment of someone's career, or things that were true over looked and swept under the rug for the sake of someone's career, all manner of things. And the source is not always the women in uniform. Most of them are great. But it only takes one bad apple. Across both genders.

 

[schellie69]

I have had and do have family in the military mostly men, however my female cousin served. I think if the woman can do the job fine she can do the job. I also see woman who get deployed call foul because she had no one at home to take care of her kids. I need to be a mom. I don't think you can have it both ways. I am female I support our troops 100% do I like the military top brass no. I also worry more about the people in Washington making the laws and sending our men and women to police the whole world.

 

[AquaEyes]

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Interestingly, some of the first psychological tests (including those for intelligence) were created for the military.