Women In The Military

1. Women In The Military By: John Jones

3. Women in today’s U.S. military Women make up about 20 percent of today's military. With increased tempo of operations, female Soldiers are stepping up to take on some of the roles traditionally filled by males, such as providing unit and convoy security. Some units, including military police, are using an ever-increasing number of females for patrols outside their bases. Women are rising to increasingly higher levels in the Defense Department according to 2004 Defense Manpower statistics. They show that officer and enlisted women on active duty increased from 13% to 15% from 1995 to 2004.

4. The Importance of Women’s History Army researchers came up with a new study that concludes that, when a woman is correctly. trained, she can be as tough as any man. The report by the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine at Natick, MA was led by senior analyst Everett Harman. "You don't need testosterone to get strong," Harman concluded. Through a regimen of regular jogging, weight training, and other rigorous exercise, more that 75 percent of the 41 women studied were able to prepare themselves to successfully perform duties traditionally performed by males in the military. Before training, less than 25 percent of the women were capable of performing the tasks. All but one of the females were civilian volunteers, and none had previously adopted a routine of strenuous physical activity. The women included lawyers, mothers, students, and bartenders. Several had recently had children and thought the training would put them back in shape. They were unaware that their performance might eventually be used to topple one of the last

5. citadels of bias against women in both the military and society. The 24-week training study began in May 1995 with women spending 90 minutes a day, five days a week, building themselves up for endurance tests. They ran a two-mile wooded course wearing a 75-pound rucksack and performed squats holding a 100-pound barbell on their shoulders. Nationally certified trainers oversaw the conditioning. Improvement of over 33 percent was noted by the scientists who wrote the report. Nearly concurrently with this test, the Ministry of Defense in Great Britain conducted the same kind of study. The Sunday Times of London reported that "by using new methods of physical training, women can be built up to the same levels of physical fitness as men of the same size and build." The British article also notes that "contrary to the view of many traditionalists, the operational performance of groups improve greatly if both sexes are involved."

6. Women in Combat The reality is that there is absolutely no intelligent, logical, sensible reason for women not to be in combat roles with the technological style of warfare that abounds today. So, during the civil war, women dressed as men to fight in combat on both sides. There are political, patriarchal, religious, and stupid reasons to preclude women but they all belong in The Museum of Natural Idiocy next to chastity belts, urban legends, homophobia, promise creepers, senile senators, proselytizing preachers, and military machismo. The antiquated concepts that fill the closed minds of the "brotherhood of the sword", - the military establishment - with its tailhook mentality and its martenetistic attitude - have created a brain-lock that has polluted everything from the Congress to the media.

8. Memorial honors to women that served Though considerable, that number is a mere 15 percent of the 2 million women eligible for inclusion in the registry, the heart of the memorial. Officials of the Women in Military Service to America Memorial Foundation are trying to reach the remaining 85 percent so they can be included and help preserve the history of women in the military. The stories of nearly 300,000 servicewomen are preserved in the computerized registry of the Women in Military Service to America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. Since June 1998, the foundation opened several new exhibits at the memorial, said foundation spokeswoman Jennifer Finstein.

9. The displays commemorate: • The 50th anniversary of the Women's Armed Services Integration Act, on display through 1999. • Native Americans, through 1999. • The Spanish-American War, through May. • Ethnic heritage months. • The Women's Memorial dedication, on display indefinitely. • The 25th anniversary of women in the service chaplains corps, on display indefinitely.

11. Citations • www.tribuneindia.com. Retrieved February 14, 2008, from www.tribuneindia.com Web site: http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040912/women.htm • ncmuseumofhistory.org. Retrieved February 14, 2008, from ncmuseumofhistory.org Web site: http://ncmuseumofhistory.org/workshops/womenshistory/SESSION1.html • usmilitary.about.com. Retrieved February 11, 2008, from Women in the military Web site: http://usmilitary.about.com/od/womeninthemilitary/Women_in_the_United_States_Military.htm