Term Paper on Women on Combat
Women in combat are a very interesting as well as a morally significant and
strategically important topic. There is interest for the military who must
make sure the combatants have no weakness while in the battleground and the
moralists have interest in the perseverance of the morality of women in
combat. Women in combat essentially mean a physical involvement of women in
the actual war. A direct combat means a combat in close proximities with
fire, maneuver, or shock effect. One can kill or get killed in no time in a
face-to-face combat. Therefore there is a need to be of highly determined
will power to achieve calm and maintain the cool during a combat. Wilson
recounts her experiences and explains that women are on equal grounds with
men as far as they are competent and able to fulfill their duties
successfully. American combat women go through extensive physical and mental
training before and during their life in the military establishments. Wilson
states that there are over 200,000 women serving in the armed forces of USA.
This is more than14 percent of the total armed force. According to Wilson,
‘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.’
Even in today’s modern world, women are discouraged to become war combatants
due to political, patriarchal, religious, and other false reasons. Army
research concludes that upon receipt of correct training, a woman 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.
American women are increasingly feeling a strong need to change the
traditional image of a woman as being soft at heart and weak in the body
with lesser determination and will power of the mind. Pennington (2001)
asserts that Russian tradition is full of strong combative women and
observes that perhaps more than in any other country this tradition has been
evident. Ancient burial sites dating back to the fourth or third centuries
were found to contain women buried with weapons. During World War I, 2,000
women were recruited and volunteered for the "Battalion of Death." The
written purpose of the battalion was to "serve as an example to the army and
lead the men into battle ... to shame the men in the trenches by having the
women go over the top first" (p. 5), by July 1917 the Battalion of Death was
involved in front line combat and suffered heavy casualties.
Wilson opines that killing is not merely a male jurisdiction, as the society
believes. One can find many women who are excellent sharpshooters and on the
contrary one may find men not being able to hit properly. The role of women
is definitely going to gain much more importance in the future wars when
ground combat would mostly be replaced with robotics and computer and
satellite controlled wars. Then women’s physical weakness would not be able
to hinder their efficiency but their mental aptitude and determination will
be the main factors on which their successful career in combat would be
determined. De Pauw discusses that women have fought side by side with men
not just in combat, but also as women as spies, nurses, and camp followers.
As far as US navy is concerned, women are eligible to serve in all of the
Navy's officer communities except submarines and special warfare (SEALs).
Women are now aboard combatant ships, thousands of enlisted women and
officers are "serving at sea". Similarly, women are not allowed to serve in
infantry, armor, cannon field artillery and short-range air defense
artillery. One also needs to realize that any work’s operational and
functional performance or results improve rapidly in places or situations
where women are equally involve with the men in a group. A popular belief is
that women cannot kill because they are too soft at heart. They sympathize
with the desperate sooner than men. Women are usually given the tasks
related to infantry, armor, field artillery, security force guard protecting
nuclear material, and several positions related to armored, amphibious,
assault units and fleet antiterrorism security teams.
Professor Cottam (1998) recounts in Women in War and Resistance that Russian
women were involved in combats as pilots also. And almost all Soviet women
pilots seemed to have been inspired by a trio of female aviation pioneers by
the names of Valentina Grizodubova, Polina Osipenko and Marina Raskova. The
rest of the women pilots took their inspirations from these three pilots.
These three women pilot combatants became as famous in the Soviet Union
during the 1930's as Amelia Erhardt was in the West.
Another form of combat that the women should be engaged in is against the
forces of Satan. Women are especially vulnerable to the Satanic tactics
because Satan knows that one spoiled woman spoils hundreds of men.
Therefore, by corrupting an innocent woman and sending her into the abyss of
immodesty and corruption both mentally as well as physically, Satan achieves
a greater goal of destroying men.
But today’s women do not seem to be gauging this threat but usually fall
pray to Satan easily. They wear a bikini to the beach or pool in favor of
fashion and pride. Satan’s goal is to be worshiped above the one true God
aiming to amass an army of angels and humans to overthrow God and His Son,
the Holy Spirit and the heavenly angels. This is the reason why women as
well as men should combat this unusual enemy. Upon growing women are also
biologically prone to falling into bad deeds and it’s the responsibility of
the fellow people to advise them for their own sake. The environment around
us is increasingly becoming vulgar and obscene. Look at the vulgarity
everywhere in the movies, Internet, magazines, out in the street and
everywhere. We have our religious and cultural values of modesty that we
should keep in mind to save our families from the impending threats.
Webb (1979) explained why women couldn’t be good combatants. He gives his
experiences saying that during the combat one needs to be vicious, dangerous
and skilled in deceiving the enemy in the eye. The mission of a combat is
organized mayhem, which needs to be organized to sustain people in the war
field. He explains that women may have a place in military but not in
combat. Webb is of the opinion that women poison the male dominated combat
academies by the very gender they have and its inherent weaknesses and
influences on the fellow men.
Reed (2002) is also of the opinion that women are not fit for the physically
demanding jobs in the military, as for example combat. A report of the
Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces
(report date November 15, 1992, published in book form by Brassey's in 1993)
concludes that women are more than twice as likely to suffer leg injuries
and nearly five times as likely to suffer fractures as men. The report gives
numerous facts supporting why women should not be allowed as combats. For
example, they found that women's aerobic capacity is significantly lower. It
means that they cannot carry as much as far as fast as men, and are more
susceptible to fatigue.
Military Medicine, October 1997 (p. 690) states, "One-third of 450 female
soldiers surveyed indicated that they experienced problematic urinary
incontinence during exercise and field training activities. The other
crucial finding of the survey was probably that 13.3% of the respondents
restricted fluids significantly while participating in field exercises." The
reason was that peeing was embarrassing for the females.
Works Cited
Pennington, Reina (2001) Wings, Women, and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War
II Combat Modern War Studies Series. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas,
2001. ISBN 0-7006-1145-2.
Women in Combat by Erin Erickson Humanities, March/April 1998
Christian Women in Combat Hearthkeepers 1999-2001
From "Women Can't Fight" by James Webb, The Washingtonian, 1979
Women In Combat: Facts From A Closet June 5, 2002 by Fred Reed http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/stories/reed060502.htm
De Pauw, Linda Grant
Battle Cries and Lullabies: Women in War from Prehistory to the Present
Cottam, Kazimiera J.(1998) Women in War and Resistance: Selected Biographies
of Soviet Women Soldiers New Military Publishing
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