ETH301

Module 2 – SLP

Introduction

For centuries there has been a restriction on the roles of women in the U.S. military. Although there has been an increase of opportunities for women to serve in combat roles, they are still discriminated against in every branch of the military. However, in the last few years with ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the success women have been having in combat, policies are being debated.

Utilitarian The U.S. military insists that women not participate in combat roles for a number of reasons. The most common reasons brought up are reasons that affect the majority of soldiers, which happen to be men. However, all of these reasons have been proven to be inaccurate or just plain not true. In light of these findings it remains that women are restricted from certain combat duties. One of the more common reasons stated is that women are not strong enough to participate in battle and that they would hinder overall operations due to their physical weakness. However, it has been proven that with proper training, women can become just as strong as men their same size. (USARIEM) Another reason commonly brought up is that women can’t handle the stress of battle and that they have too much mental anguish. Col. Carl Castro, director of Military Operational Research Program at the Dept. of Defense, has proved this incorrect. He states, ‘‘when I look at the data, I see nothing to counter that point.'' (NY Times) The last Utilitarian argument that I will discuss is the argument of having women serving in direct combat will hamper mission effectiveness by hurting unit morale and cohesion. Once again there has been little evidence that the integration of women into previously closed units or occupations has had a negative impact on important mission-related performance factors, like unit cohesion.