Women's Roles In The Military

Many have argued should women be allowed to serve in direct combat for decades. Activists have argued that women should be allowed to serve in combative roles, but many governmental and political officials as well as American citizens feel differently. Arguments of women who have been serving in the military since the Revolutionary War, many disguised as men has exposed them to combat, death and even becoming POW’s. Many women have been serving beside their fellow comrades for years and are capable of doing so without causing disruption of the unit cohesion or combat readiness. The controversial issues will be discussed, but before that let’s provide some historical insight on how women’s roles in the military have evolved.

History of Women

Roles of women consisted of nursing and special operations personnel. During World War I is when women were finally able to join the military. More than 33, 000 women served as nurses and special staff during that time. Only 400 lost their lives in the line of duty. Even though women were given these roles they still wanted to contribute to the fight despite the exclusionary rule and policies. The Army and Navy Nurse Corps offered the opportunity of nurses to serve in an official capacity in the military. It was established in the early 1900’s nurses working closer to the front lines than they had ever before. With the expanding roles of the women during the war it created numerous new challenges, social and economic

The policy and the purpose of it was not to discriminate against women, but to protect women from the harsh realities of the combat zone and the effectiveness of combat readiness. In order to do this we would have to understand the reason behind the exclusionary rule and the current role of women, this is a critical start to the rationalization behind the policy.

Historical Policies of Women in the Military

During this time only 2% of the armed forces was allowed to be women. Yet still the women were not treated equally. As they served in the armed forces they were classified as non-combatants and asked to serve with lesser benefits and training as the men. Women have been serving in the military forever. The question to the reader is whether the women can serve equally or at a greater risk to the military and to themselves?

The 1948 Women’s Armed Services Integration Act prohibited women in the military from having dependents. President Harry S. Truman in 1951 signed Executive Order 10240 that would discharge a women from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps who became pregnant, adopted child and any child under the minimum age of 18. These regulations started to change in 1970 largely because women were needed to be nurses and therefore the forcible separation offered women voluntary separation as a new