Wonderful World of Academia: They're ruining our military!

[gelbes_gilatier]

So, since Panetta announced the lift of the ban on combat for female soldiers (only not really, so those tough boys in the infantry won't get too afraid of being emasculated), there have been loads of reactions. My least favorite ones are by military historian Martin van Creveld who thinks introducing women into combat MOS will "wreck" the US

Comments

Re: 2/2

[gelbes_gilatier]

(I hope I could help, if anything I hope you enjoyed reading the links I provided!)

It's awesome to see how another country (the direct neighbor to the US, even) handles having had women in combat MOS/trades for 24 years. I loved all the links you posted (especially Sisters in Armys!)!

though there is indeed a visible lack of females going into the combat trades

Which is, I believe, true for most fully gender integrated militaries (a study from 2008 regarding the integration of women into the German Armed Forces said that of the sample, a lower region one digit percentage of women were in combat MOS) and makes it even harder for me to understand the underlying irrational fear that hundreds of thousands of (incompetent) women would be flooding the combat arms (also related, suddenly, incompetent men in the combat arms seem to be non-existent...) now.

But sucks for them, I say, because someone out there decided that men and women didn’t have to meet the same standardsExactly. It also pisses me off that everyone seems to be

[lazar_grrl]

As a contrast, there was a similar backlash against the integration of "colored" troops into combat units in the 40's/50's, and a lot of people were pissing and moaning about how it would wreck the military because black people were inherently unfit for combat positions. As well, the repeal of DADT, but that's probably too recent.

I personally think that putting a minority group into combat training, or at least creating the possibility, puts the current majority into a fear frenzy. They won't be the only ones at the top, they won't be able to look down on them, they might not be able to get away with doing whatever they want to do. It's one thing to rape the cute little supply clerk who's going to be staying in the rear; it's another to rape the person who may have to bail your ass out in a firefight. Yeah, that's a nasty train of thought, but I heard about Leon Gilbert at granny's knee.

[impala_chick]

I would say that America is pretty proud of being a patriarchal society (women included in that view) for a variety of reasons, so I think the issue really stems from cultural biases. But that can be said about a lot issues. About this issue specifically, I think it's more about the fact that with infantry especially - you go in expecting that you will be shot at and possibly killed. And most Americans view infantry service as a way to protect your mothers and sisters and wives in the homeland. So if your wives and mothers and sisters are out there with you, that is going to change the way you think about what you're fighting for. It would cause a cultural shift, and Americans are always scared of cultural shifts (maybe because we are one of the most conservative western countries). I would also add that it seems to me that most people opposed to this change in America are academics or defense workers, not the actual military grunts. The men and women out there actually doing the work, they are the ones that know teamwork can work