Women in the Military

Women have always found ways to disguise their identity and fight beside their brothers but the military has always considered itself a male preserve. The idea of women in a combat zone was formerly anathema. Blacks were not integrated into the armed services until the mid-twentieth century for reasons of morale. Gays either put up and shut up or stayed away. The average soldier has appeared rather red-necked and racist. Society may ram gender equality down the forces’ throats but they could not make the men in the ranks like it. Anyone invading this club had better be prepared to take their medicine. The idea of women in the confined space of a submarine seems almost laughable. None of this touches the resentment fuelled by special concessions or the need to retrofit housing, barracks and seaboard quarters for women. The idea of taking orders from a woman.... We can’t expect the military to make advancements beyond the society from which it draws its manpower. Women still face inferior wages, glass ceilings, and the expectation that they be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. Many religious organizations including the Catholic Church, Jewry, and the Morman’s still keep women “in their place”. All this doesn’t make sexual harassment right but it does serve to explain why it occurs. Those on the cutting edge always face an uphill battle.