Pros and cons of women in combat - Weebly



Pros and cons of women in combat

In a recent historic decision last week, military leaders at the Pentagon decided to end the US military’s ban on placing female soldiers in active combat zones. When the ban is lifted officially it will open current and aspiring female members of the military an opportunity to take a job on the front lines of open conflicts that the US engages in.

Pros

The military’s decision to let women into active combat roles was made out of a couple of shifting cultural strategic paradigms evolving within inside the military. There is a general hope that this will close the gender gap in male to female participation in the military but many other supporters list numerous advantages this policy will bring. Some of those are listed and summarized below.

Physical and Mental Differences: There are some observed generalized differences between men and women that supporters see as a big advantage to the military. According to supporters, women to have higher IQ’s and also show more emotion in making decisions which tends to lead to lower aggression, accidents and injuries in the line of duty. All of these advantages are leading supporters to hope that women in combat will help balance and equalize the military.

Glass Ceiling of Military Brass: The glass ceiling of female advancement does not exist solely in the business world. The military has been challenged in opening high level positions to females. The vanguard of male leadership is hard to breech and supporters hope that the removal of the policy will open more high level positions for women in the military.

Equality: The military has long harbored some patriarchal practices and assumptions about females in the service that give the military a poor image. The idea of the hyper masculine warrior puts women that serve in a uniquely tough spot. It is the belief of many of the military’s top brass that removing this policy will offer equality and will in turn eliminate discrimination amongst the ranks.

Cons

There are a number of concerns that are being voiced by the opposition to this new policy including the role of the enemy when engaging female combatants. A few of the notable critiques of the policy are laid out and summarized below.

Linear battlefield: The notion of great wars has died and with it so has the linear battlefield died. With the evolution of and asymmetric conflict so has the rise of targeted assaults on key members of the military. Recently insurgents have been noted as

singling out female soldiers in the US army when attacking US installations. Dr. Nora Bensahel, the deputy director of studies and senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, takes a particularly critical stance of this evolution of combat in an with CBS explaining that;

"Insurgents were trying to attack supply lines in an effort to make it more difficult for U.S. forces to operate. And so women were being targeted, taken prisoner, all the things that in more traditional battlefields was true of the front line entry units."

Physical Strengths: One of the major disputes that is integral to the debate over females in combat is their overall physical ability. There is an ongoing discussion over whether women meet the necessary requirements of active combat duty. In response, the Pentagon has begun a number of studies to evaluate the abilities of female soldiers and whether their standards effectively measure the strengths of current soldiers. Regardless of the findings, the Pentagon has vowed to hold both males and females to the same standards for physical strength.

Sexual Assault: The military has a glaringly public track record when it comes to prosecuting and investigating events of sexual assault that occur in the military. Some critics of the new policy believe that either the military must address this issue before letting women serve or that it will make the problem impossible to manage. Either way, it is clear that sexual assault is a major issue that has to be addressed moving forward.

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