Living and Fighting Alongside Men, and Fitting In

"The military, of course, is not gender blind, especially in a war zone (Myer,1)."

                Women in the military face many obstacles with working in an institution that is male-dominant. Two struggles that women have faced when joining the military are stepping their feet over an imaginary line our country has drawn that separates men and women, and sexual harassment. In the New York Times, the article Living and Fighting Alongside Men, and Fitting In by Steven Lee Myers addresses both of these issues, along with some first hand knowledge coming from female soldiers who fought in the Iraq-Afganistan War.

              More and more women are joining the military which has slowly began breaching the gender gap between men and women. Women soldiers have required new protocols and services to meet their personal needs and this has been the main push that has made our military start to accommodate both genders and push patriarchal beliefs, such as women not being able to pursue any fighting roles in combat, and taking care of their general health and hygiene. When women first started sifting their ways through the barrier to fight in war, there were many aspects that were not yet suited to accomodate women soldiers. Basically in simple terms the military was not equipped for women; it only catered to men's needs. "On a practical level, the military was not prepared to house and otherwise address the specific needs of women in a war zone — including issues like health and privacy (Myer, 1)." When women showed up suited and armed, they were not provided with their own space or supplies to take care of their needs properly. The Iraq-Afganistan War was when our military saw for the first time many roles being placed with women that were outside their traditional jobs such as nurse or equipment handler. These women, whose number was increasing, pushed for new protocols to provide better for women soldiers. Changes slowly began to take place where now when women soldiers go to war they have their own CHUs (containerized housing units), and their own bathroom and showers. There is a gynecologist they can frequent when needed, as well as access to free birth control. With having there own showering area, and a place to go to for their health issues, there was no longer a valid excuse to use a woman's health and hygiene against giving her a fighting position. In addition to providing for women soldiers, a device called a feminine urinary director was created which allows women to pee standing up when on duty, as men are able to. This saves time with having to take off less clothing when a woman needs to urinate. These new protocols and products that are geared towards women soldiers are reshaping our military. You see women searching Iraqi women at checkpoints, and female gunners, such as Specialist Jennifer M. Hoeppner, who face just as much danger as their fellow male soldiers. These changes within our military have slowly let the gender line begin to blur, with having more women in fighting roles stepping out of their traditional job titles of nurse and equipment handler. 

                       Women have made major gains in the way our military goes to war, however regardless of these improvements our military is still not gender blind. The article Living and Fighting Alongside Men, and Fitting In touches on the serious issue concerning sexual harassment against women in the military. "Sexual harassment in a still-predominantly male institution remains a problem. So does sexual assault. Both are underreported, soldiers and officers here say, because the rigidity of the military chain of command can make accusations uncomfortable and even risky for victims living in close quarters with the men they accuse (Myer,1)." It is a soldier's duty to protect our country, but how can our country go so far to protect millions of people from outside enemies when we cannot even protect our soldiers from inside perpetrators? Millions of dollars each year from the Department of Defense go towards programs to prevent sexual assault and harassment within out military every year, but the amount of sexual harassment has risen over the years. The rising numbers could be because these programs may help women speak out about harassment and assault they have experienced, because very often in the past, and still even today sexual harassment or assault is often very underreported. The women soldiers who have been assaulted or harassed are scared of the consequences if they speak out because they live in close quarters with their perpetrator, and the perpetrator could also be a commander, or above authority, and there would be no escaping them, and reporting them could make the abuse worse. There is also the mindset in the military that men are more powerful than women, making the women's word not as powerful as a man's. A precaution advised that Myer wrote is for the women to walk in pairs, therefore women would not be alone making it harder for an attack or any harassment to take place. Chapter 10 in Women's Lives also adresses the seriousness of sexual harassment within the military, and gives statistics to show the predominance of sexual harassment that is inflicted on women soldiers. In the Veterans Administration study, one third of the women reported they had been raped, and ninety percent reported they had been sexually harassed while serving. These large numbers are obscene, and show that sexual harassment and assault is a huge problem within our military that needs to be addressed beyond advising women to walk in pairs, or having them afraid to use the bathroom after 3:00 such as the women mentioned in Chapter 10. "..regarding several women who died of dehydration in Iraq because they stopped drinking fluids after 3 or 4PM. 'They were afraid of being assaulted or even raped by male soldiers of they had to use the women's latrine after dark' (Kirk, 500)." Prevention programs will help, but sexual abuse and harassment live off of control and violence, which does military does as well, so in order to eliminate the large percentages of women in the military who have experienced abuse so restructuring and redefining need to take place within our military to alter it to run on a more egalitarian structure, with the ways we use violence and control altered as well.

Question:

In the article Living and Fighting Alongside Men, and Fitting In, it was mentioned that women have ended the debate over their role by their performance, so then why are we still debating their role in the military right now? Why do women have to go way beyond and prove themselves when all men need to do is meet general requirements, and not continue to have to prove themselves?

This is direct result of our deep patriarchal roots. Our military is an institution that was created on the basis of male dominance that protects a patriarchal society. Militarization has made our country very pro-war with the Bush Administration having Hollywood make pro-war movies, as well as it is seen in our clothing (camo), in children's toys such as G.I. Joe, and in popular video games that are filled with violence and killing. These famous culture aspects of our nation are the fuse to keeping our military a predominantly male institution. Even with more women soldiers in combat, and high authoritative roles, and fighting roles, most women jobs in our military are ones of traditional female roles such as nurses, food service, and supply and administration workers. Even when a women makes it to the top, she is still banned from fighting in the front line because that is just "not right". And these women who make it into combat fighting roles still have to prove themselves daily to counteract the brash they get from their male counterparts that ridicule her expertise just because she is female. So in reality even though women's performance in war may be superb, it still has not ended the debate of women allowed in the military, in fact there is a long way to go before that debate is ended.