The Gender Wars
We live in a country where the law states that you can't discriminate against someone based on gender, but, the US military does so on a daily basis. On the one hand we want to provide equal opportunity to women, but on the other hand we want to protect them from the harsh realities of war. Our society is fractured on this issue. Women are
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I had a several responses that I wanted to give to specific points of your essay, but I realized that each point of contention had the same dilemna: I was going to come across as an accomodationalist. During the 19th and 20th centuries, there were angry debates among African Americans about the rate atwhich they should achieve equality, and fair treatment. I realized while reading each paragraph of yours that I wanted to say, "Well, you know, Dave, Americans are culturally conservative, and they might not be ready for that."
Okay, so where do we go from here? Make women complete 100% equals in the military? Both my heart and my brain say "Yes", but my gut says "no." I keep circling back to the equality that Israeli women have in their army, but the thing that occurs to me is that theirs' is a special case: they need every able-bodied citizen who can carry a gun, in order for them not to get invaded. Nobody is going to invade us, here, so we don't have to worry about that. Hey, we don't even have a draft.
So, why do people voluntarily join the military? Well, there are some who really do want to "fight the terrorists", but a good number of them--I would posit that this is true for nearly all, if not all females--want the job training, educationa, and benefits. Let's be honest; for the last 2 or 3 decades, the US militaryhas been a jobs program.
Well, in that case,it should be 100% equal, like in the civilian job market. Female (civilian) cops have to pass the PT test, fire a weapon accurately, etc. They have to be able to take down a guy my size, and cuff him. You do see a lot of female cops, these days. What you don't see, though, are a lot of female firefighters. Yes--there are a lot of macho buttheads in fire departments--but you can't argue with the fact that firefighting in a city is very physically demanding work. Those guys who are in the fire dept are all big, gigantic men with broad shoulders. To get in, men and women have to pass tests in which they drag heavy lines of fire hose upladders, and drag unconscious people around. It'scompletely merit-based.
Sometimes I wonder,if there aren't in fact substantial biological differences between men and women that are in fact wide enough that like in the example above,firefighters will always be firemen,with the rare, occasional woman who can do it.
Now, does that make it okay for men to belittle women? No.In our age of machines, the number of occupations that require big arm muscles is a fraction of what it was 100 years ago. But, if we were still riding horses, I don't think we would be having this conversation. I think that is applicable to gender inequality, but not to racial or other types of equality.
100 years ago, Blacks, Mexican and other immigrant men did more than their share of the physically demanding work, so there never was a valid argument in their times, be it the Civil War, World War I, or World War II for someone to say that they were inferior, and should not have equal rights. I think thatthe reason we can demand equal rights for women today is that our circumstances make it possible.
Tom Miko
http://www.radioactivebirdwatcher.blogspot.com
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