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Should Women Be Allowed In Military Combat? Essay, Research Paper

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In this report, I will present the information I’ve discovered concerning whether

allowing women to serve in combat units will reduce a units effectiveness. Women in

today’s military serve in more jobs and constitute the largest percent of women in the

military then ever before. Four years ago women only made up 12 percent of the military,

this has climbed from 1.6 percent in 1973 (Armed Forces and Society, 1996, p. 17). They

also hold more jobs than ever before. In 1991, congress passed an amendment which

allowed women to fly fixed wing and rotary wing combat aircraft in the military (Harvard

International Review, 1992, 52). The military has also opened more combat support jobs

in an effort to get more women to join the military. Virtually every job is open to women

in the military; infantry, submarines, and artillery are the only ones that are still off limits

(Congressional Quarterly Weekly, 1996, p. 368).

First, let me explain the distinction between combat support units and direct

combat units. The military changed its definition of direct combat for women. This opened

up more jobs for women that had been off-limits (Congressional Quarterly Researcher,

1992, p. 844). The performance of women in these positions was tested during the Gulf

War. For the first time, American women flew combat missions and directly supported

infantry units (Hamline Journal of Public Law and Policy, 1991, p. 200). Many times they

were exposed to live fire, consequentially 13 were killed (Congressional Quarterly

Weekly, 1992, p. 842). However, women were never considered to be in direct

combat. The military’s current combat exclusion policy states that women are prohibited

from serving in positions that are “engaging an enemy with individual or crew-served

weapons while being exposed to direct fire, a high probability or direct physical contact

with the enemy’s personnel, and a substantial risk of capture” (Law and Inequality, 1991,

p. 6). Many people feel that this policy is discriminatory towards women and only

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perpetuates the view that they are not seen equally in the military. This policy ensures the

effectiveness of the combat unit, which brings me to my next definition. The effectiveness

of a combat unit is measured by its ability “…in mobilizing, and deploying troops,

effectiveness in battle measured by outcomes, mission accomplishment or the ratio of

United States versus enemy killed and wounded in combat” (Glenn, 1991, as cited by

Peach, 1991, p. 212).

In this report, I will discuss five topics. First, I will discuss the experience other

nations have had with mixing men and women in combat. My next topic will compare men

and women in two ways. I will start my last topic by comparing men and women

physically then comparing men and women psychologically. Then I will evaluate the health

care needs of women in combat support units. Finally I will discuss the effect that women

would have on unit cohesion. Undoubtedly, the majority of women are less muscular and

lack the endurance of men. However, there is a small percentage of women that can equal

or surpass some men currently serving in combat units. Also, I found very little research

stating that women were not psychologically equal to men. There were three factors,

which I used to compare men and women psychologically. I discussed how males are

perceived to be more aggressive than females, the stress that males and females will face in

combat, and female’s effect on unit moral. Also I showed how important unit cohesion

was in determining a units effectiveness. The health care needs can be met by combat

support units when there are well trained physicians and nurses that can handle the needs

of women (Military Medicine, 1995, p. 221).

.

WOMEN IN COMBAT FACTS

Only two countries besides the United States have used women in modern warfare.

The first was Russia during WWII and later Israel in 1948. Russian women flew fighters

to protect Stalingrad from advancing German armies and also took up arms to protect the

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city (The Journal of Military History, 1993, p. 319). After the war, Russian women were

banned from all combat positions while in these positions it has been documented that they

performed extremely well. The women pilots were soon called “Night Witches” due to

their great performance (The Journal of Military History, 1993, p. 320). Israel during the

War for Independence, also used women in direct combat positions. The need for women

to serve in combat positions became great because so many men had been killed on the

front lines. Like the Russians, after the conflict ended the Israeli military prohibited

women from serving in these positions. Many researchers after examining how women

performed in these positions came to the same conclusion. They noted that the

effectiveness of the combat unit was in jeopardy because of women. Men became

overprotective of women and jeopardized the safety of the unit by taking unnecessary

risks to protect women from danger (Harvard International Review, 1992, p. 58). Also

less then one percent of the soldiers who were killed during the war were women. The

Russian women who flew combat missions during WWII are similar to the types of

missions female pilots are expected to perform. During, the Gulf War,

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