A study of the military exclusion policy for women: its ethical dimensions and practical impact

Although American women have had a long, distinguished history working for the armed forces of the United States, the American military has been struggling with the integration of women into official combat positions from the colonial era until present day. Gender stereotypes regarding women’s ability to perform combat duty permeate the debate surrounding their inclusion into combat roles. Opponents of women in combat roles point to women’s overall physical fitness, female strength, pregnancy, motherhood, sexual activity and psychological stress as reasons to bar women from combat duty. They also question women’s ability to cope with the military’s existing male-dominated martial culture where sexual harassment continues to be a problem. Opponents of women in combat have questioned the effect that female integration will have on unit cohesion. Furthermore, they have argued, without evidence, that women cannot or should not kill, that the presence of women in combat will make the entire unit appear weak to the enemy and that servicemen will simply never get used to the idea of fighting alongside females since many of them were raised to believe they are the protectors of women. Research shows that not only are these assumptions about women and their integration into combat roles wrong but they are also damaging women’s careers inside the military and hindering progress towards equal citizenship for women in the broader society. By vigorously challenging these gender stereotypes and examining the successes of women’s integration into combat positions in other countries, the American military can find ways to improve the inclusion of servicewomen into combat roles. Evidence suggests that such a change would mark advancement toward equal citizenship rights and responsibilities for women both inside and outside the military as well as progress toward gender justice. This study utilizes a combination of qualitative and quantitative data gathered from books, articles, websites, research centers, congressional reports, research institute reports and scholarly journals to show how the American military’s combat exclusion guidelines for women began, challenge the gender stereotypes employed to justify it, explore the fairness of the policy toward women both inside and outside the armed forces, study the efficacy of the policy within the military as an institution and explore ways the American military can improve the integration of women into combat roles by adopting some of the successful strategies of combat inclusive countries such as Israel and Norway.M.A.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vit