The role and the situation of women in military has been changing for the last four decades, and by the beginning of the 21st century, the role of women in military had changed in all the NATO countries, with the number of women in the military increasing dramatically in all the divisions of the armed forces (Carreiras, 2016). This was as a result of the lifting of many restrictions that stood in the way of women in the military. Women have also progressively been admitted in military academies; they also have been given wider access in positions and functions, gender awareness has risen in most military structures and policies that encourage the integration of women have been drafted and implemented in the military.
The situation of women in the armed forces is a great example of the shifting role of women in the occupational structures of the country. Conventionally, women in the army offered support and medical services with their roles not including close combat roles and significant administration roles. After World War II the defense force had not yet filled the mandatory 2% sanctioned quota of women, despite the fact that enlisting is was completely voluntary.
This changed in 1960, which saw an increased number of women enlist as uniformed officers. This influenced a gradual expansion of the roles that were played by women in the armed forces. The increased enlistment brought a social uproar in the United States and other western countries as the military made a conscious effort to recognize and incorporate the change.
The nature of the military was changing, with great emphasis being placed on administration, logistics organization reversed the roles of the officers in service and enlarged the roles available in favor of women (Carreiras, 2016). The feminist movement towards industrial and professional impartiality for women also shifted the focus and empowered more women to enlist in the army. The enlistment was not mainly focused on producing officers who were steadfast to militant demands but to expand the roles of women into a wide range of assignments, with an emphasis on equality without similarity.
The factors that induced the changes in the 21st-century military composition shifted to micro social trends, which included the strong pull to uphold gender equality and the shift in military tactics towards force reduction and professionalism. Despite the efforts to equalize the responsibilities of women in the military in the last decade, several occupational restrictions still exist.
Women have mostly excluded from combat-related situations and most special-ops task forces, and international peace-keeping operations. They are still mostly constrained to operational support, and when they qualify for combat roles, they are not well accepted and often face hostile reactions from their team-mates. Studies have shown that even when formal integration is achieved, social acceptance does not necessarily follow, and the patterns of women acceptance in the military have not been linear, but have followed acceptance cycles depending on the state of the nation.
The argument on the role of women in the military ranges from those that strongly oppose the involvement of women in the military, to those that support their integration into specified roles and finally those that support the full integration of women in all, spheres of combat (Carreiras, 2016). Those that are against the involvement of women in combat argue that a military is a special group of citizens with the main task of maintaining the peace and order of a nation, and thus should not be treated as a laboratory to conduct social experiments. They also claim that the involvement of women in the first line of defense acts to weaken the strength of the military and their readiness for battle, since women are traditionally weak and submissive. The other claim is that the military should fully adhere to time-tested traditions that did not allow women in combat duties (Mathews, 2017). The other court is for the idea that the military is a democratic institution and it is also tasked with protecting the citizens of nations and thus their rights, including that of equality.
Despite the debates that still rage in military circles against the involvement of women, they have gone on and achieved continued success in the last decade. It saw a female colonel, Colonel Linda McTague, become the first woman to command a fighter squadron, while the marines and the army are getting closer to allowing women involvement in full combat duties. In the January of 2013, the then secretary of defense did away with the ban over women involvement in fighting roles and gave the defense force two years to fully adhere to the new regulation. In 2015, two women graduated from the Army Ranger School, after the order that was made two years earlier to open combat jobs to women. The policy was evolutionary in the fact that it expanded the roles that are played by women in the defense system of the country, and gives them an opportunity to rise to the highest ranks in the military.
Women have displayed their skills as able combat personnel, despite the challenges encountered along the way. There also still, existing laws in the US that restrict them from serving in roles that put them in direct combat. An example is the Air Force that prohibits women from flying aircraft that might be involved in direct combat. The Army and Marine Corps had official policies that prohibited women from going into combat. Such policies forbid women, on the foundation of their femininity only and not skill set or other physical conditions, from serving their country in close to half of all the job opportunities that are offered by the military. The policies are outdated and need urgent revision by the Congress.
The shift in the roles of women in the military shows a positive development towards the occupation of high ranks by women shortly. The social segmentation against the involvement of women in combat is also shifting, due to the overall change in gender roles in the country. Despite the fact that most women are not eager to work in a combat position, it is important to open up the positions to those that are willing and have the skills to do the jobs (Obradovic, 2016). With the shift in warfare towards heavy reliance on technology and strategy, brains have become of more importance than brawn and thus making it crucial to involve women.
References.
Carreiras, H. (2016). Women in the Armed Forces of Western Democracies. The Ashgate Research Companion to Modern Warfare, 201.
Matthews, P. R. (2017). Pre-deployment training of UN women military peacekeepers: a case study analysis of three south-east Asian countries.
Obradovic, L. (2016). Gender integration in NATO military forces: Cross-national analysis. Routledge.
