Yesterday the Pentagon announced that it would lift the ban on women serving in combat in the military. This means that MOS that are strenuous and require a great bit of physical strength such as Infantry would now be open to females.
Like I normally do with any issue that is military related I placed up a question on the AW101 FB page for topic of discussion in which I asked “Pentagon announced that it will lift ban on women in combat. Thoughts?”. What initially was me just casually posting a topic for the sake of convo became an eye opener to what some military spouses really thought of other women serving along side their husbands in combat and furthermore serving in the military period.
To be fair of those who don’t agree with women serving in combat jobs I will say that I can understand as a woman maybe automatically feeling more protective of a fellow woman because well she is a female , other then that I have to respectfully disagree.
While the general consensus was “women can do anything men can do” it was the comments that insinuated that women were somehow less then that bothered me.
There were comments on things such as women’s hygiene, to menstrual periods to how will they urinate. Those were just some of the minuscule ones.
For years we (women) have struggled to gain equal ground on everything from our pay, education , equal employment opportunities and even the right to vote. I knew some military wives were traditional but did we really go back to the June Cleaver era too?
For the record women have been doing arduous tasks for years now in the military. Do you think that all medics on the front lines are men? What about those women who are 88M (truck drivers) who are driving down those long roads possibly lined with IED’s or female military police officers. There are male soldiers who don’t weigh 125 pounds soaking wet so what gives the mindset that a women can’t do a job that a small male can do? I know plenty of women who are incredibly strong mentally and physically.
I think people forget that these women will have to go through training or their MOS and not every woman will qualify just as every man won’t. Every man also isn’t cut out to do infantry so what is the difference?
As I was in a comment discussion on a FB friends page a woman who shared the same thoughts I did stated that she too was “floored by the biblical rants that our place is to nurture etc. And the PMS comments, made by women! Just stunning that we continue to denigrate our sisters, that we fall on these stereotypes and pronounce our own ignorance with pride!”.
She couldn’t be more right! How hypocritical of some women to say the above but on the other hand want to be looked at as independent and equal to men.
Do those who are against this understand that you are in danger period when you are in a combat zone and that chances are adrenaline (and not whether you are a man or women) will determine how you will react to when it comes to pulling someone out of harms way.
Some military spouses speculated that those who weren’t fond of the idea didn’t like the idea of women being in the sometimes extra close proximities that being in an infantry unit would sometimes require, but hey don’t shoot the messenger!
Conversation on this topic was viral yesterday on Facebook. My readers love to chat on our fan page so take a look at the 200+ comments they shared here.
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Army Wife 101
Krystel is the mom of two and an Army Wife. In addition to Army Wife 101 she is the Co-Founder of SoFluential.com a digital media agency that connects brands with the military market. She has appeared on MSNBC ,FOX LA and formerly was a weekly contributor to HLN's "Raising America". She has written for various outlets including Sheknows and Lifetime and is a big fan of cupcakes and french fries.
Krystel is the mom of two and an Army Wife. In addition to Army Wife 101 she is the Co-Founder of SoFluential.com a digital media agency that connects brands with the military market.
She has appeared on MSNBC ,FOX LA and formerly was a weekly contributor to HLN's "Raising America". She has written for various outlets including Sheknows and Lifetime and is a big fan of cupcakes and french fries. 19 Comments on Did We Just Go Back To The 1950’s With This Women In Combat Thing?
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That discussion made my blood boil yesterday on your page. It was as if people had no faith in woman at all. And the religious comment just sent me over the edge. Never mind the fact that not everyone is Christian. But seriously, some of the strongest women I have ever read about have been in the bible. I mean women back then wandered the desert for years while bearing children and taking care of the household. But now they can’t serve in combat and can’t keep clean enough. I think that several people need to take a few women’s history classes. But the fact of the matter is, it doesn’t matter if YOU won’t ever join the military in a combat capacity, some women want to and it is not fair or right to prevent them from doing so if they are up to the task.
I’m surprised at how happy I am to hear this news! I only read a few of the comments from your post but all the arguments were the same ones I’ve head over and over again, makes my blood boil. Thank you for writing this. Very well put.
As a former active duty soldier and reserve soldier, I was appalled to read all of those comments on the “ban” being lifted . I served for almost 10 years and as I was reading the comments I couldn’t believe how clueless and ignorant some of these women sounded. Women have already been serving in combat situations and on the “frontline” since the war began, the fact that it hasn’t been recognized until now is a slap in the face to all female soldiers that have served and are serving. Thank you for your eloquent and intelligent thoughts on this matter. I was beginning to lose faith in my fellow army wives.
As a very pro-woman (I can’t use the word feminist) personality, I am immensely happy at this change. As Christina said, it doesn’t change a lot of how the women serve in combat, since they already do. What it does is it makes it “OK” for women to do so – which means the military can finally start providing the services women need in those positions. For example, when my husband was deployed, he was on a small outpost (not a major FOB) so when the women fuelers, truck drivers, medics, etc… would join them for a day, they didn’t have a place to use the bathroom, shower, etc… Now that women are recognized in these positions, those facilities can be provided.
And let’s be brutally honest here. Women CAN DO ANYTHING men can do. They are not weak, timid, physically incapable, or feeble-minded – and in fact, they will likely provide a refreshing alternate view on many tasks necessary to get the job done. The actual changes to the male role in the military will be so minimal because most women will not want to do certain MOS’s (i.e. Mortars, like my husband.)
Finally, if women are so worried about other women serving next to their husband, in close quarters, maybe they should spend more time focusing on “nuturing” their marriage so they don’t have to worry about him straying. If that’s a concern of theirs, it certainly isn’t the woman’s fault simply because they want to serve in a combat role.
I really don’t have a problem with it as long as the women who are chosen can fulfill the duties required of these combat positions. They can’t be allowed to be placed in these positions and then later on use being a woman as an excuse to get out of certain situations. That’s my two cents for what it’s worth LOL!
Very well put! This is definitely a hot topic for conversation and debates, it’s amusing to see the comments and ideas from so many women. There’s nothing wrong with having the 1950s mindset some of these women have that they should be the ones to take care of the house and kids and such… but just as some of the previous posters mentioned, it’s not right to judge others and say women shouldn’t be given this opportunity. I think it’s a great step in the direction of equality of men and women.
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