Women in the military

Four F-15 Eagle pilots from the 3d Wing walk to their respective jets at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

Women in the military have a history that extends over 4,000 years into the past, throughout a vast number of cultures and nations. Women have played many roles in the military, from ancient warrior women, to the women currently serving in conflicts.

Despite various roles in the armies of past societies, the role of women in the military, particularly in combat, is controversial and it is only recently that women have begun to be given a more prominent role in contemporary armed forces. As increasing numbers of countries begin to expand the role of women in their militaries, the debate continues.

Peruvian female military officer during parade.

The queen of Jhansi, Rani Lakshmibai.

Medieval depiction of Joan of Arc.

Roza Shanina, a Soviet sniper during World War II, credited with 54 confirmed kills. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units, chiefly as medics and nurses.

From the beginning of the 1970s, most Western armies began to admit women to serve active duty. Only some of them permit women to fill active combat roles, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Germany, Norway, Israel, Serbia, Sweden and Switzerland.

Women in combat

Main article: Women in combat

Some nations allow female soldiers to serve in certain Combat Arms positions. Others exclude them, for practical or political considerations.

Women's bodies

Women aren't as strong as men, on average, although some women do possess the physical attributes suitable to become combat soldiers. There has been debate over whether women pilots can handle g-forces as well as men.

Social and cultural issues

Mixed-gender berthing on ships and submarines is an issue. Some people think having women in a combat unit would hurt esprit de corps, that men could not trust them (see also Unit cohesion There are worries about romantic or sexual relationships developing (see also Fraternization), or that a woman might get pregnant to avoid combat. Some people are not willing to accept the risk of women being captured and tortured and possibly sexually assaulted, which happened to then-Major Rhonda Cornum.

On the other hand, some argue that there's a shortage of male combat soldiers and that women should not be treated as second-class citizens.

According to Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, author of On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, Israeli soldiers reacted with uncontrollable protectiveness and aggression after seeing a woman wounded. Grossman also notes that Islamic militants rarely, if ever, surrender to female soldiers, lessening the IDF's ability to interrogate prisoners. On the other hand, Iraqi and Afghan civilians are often not intimidated by female soldiers. However, in such environments, having female soldiers serving within a combat unit does have the advantage of allowing for searches on female civilians. Children and women are more likely to talk to female soldiers than to male soldiers.

Women on submarines

In 1985, the Royal Norwegian Navy became the first navy in the world to permit female personnel to serve in submarines, followed by the appointment of a female submarine captain in 1995. The Danish Navy allowed women on submarines in 1988, the Swedish Navy in 1989, followed by the Royal Australian Navy in 1998, Canada in 2000, and Spain; all operators of conventional submarines.

Social obstacles include the perceived need to segregate accommodation and facilities, with figures from the US Navy highlighting the increased cost, $300,000 per bunk to permit women to serve on submarines versus $4,000 per bunk to allow women to serve on aircraft carriers. However, some countries have women serving on small diesel-electric submarines where they sometimes hot bunk with men.

Recent US Navy policy allowed three exceptions for women being on board military submarines: (1) Female civilian technicians for a few days at most; (2) Women midshipmen on an overnight during summer training for both Navy ROTC and Naval Academy; (3) Family members for one-day dependent cruises.

In October 2009, the U. S. Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus announced that he and the Chief of Naval Operations were moving aggressively to change the policy. Reasons included the fact that larger SSGN and SSBN submarines now in the Fleet had more available space and could accommodate female Officers with little or no modification. Also, the availability of qualified female candidates with the desire to serve in this capacity was cited. It was noted that women now represented 15% of the Active Duty Navy and that women today earn about half of all science and engineering bachelor’s degrees. A policy change was deemed to serve the aspirations of women, the mission of the Navy and the strength of its submarine force.

In February 2010, the Secretary of Defense approved the proposed policy and signed letters formally notifying Congress of the intended change. After receiving no objection, the Department of the Navy officially announced on April 29, 2010, that it had authorized women to serve onboard submarines.

The first group of U.S. female submariners completed nuclear power school and officially reported on board two ballistic and two guided missile submarines in November 2011.

Portrayals in popular culture

Further information: Woman warrior and List of women warriors in folklore

In the late 20th century and early 21st century, there have been a significant representations of "women warriors" in popular culture, occasionally including women in the military, such as the films G. I. Jane and Down Periscope.

Non-fiction

In 2007, author Kirsten Holmstedt released Band of Sisters: American Women at War in Iraq. The book presents twelve stories of American women on the frontlines including America's first female pilot to be shot down and survive, the U.S. military's first black female combat pilot, a 21-year-old turret gunner defending a convoy, two military policewomen in a firefight and a nurse struggling to save lives, including her own. Her second book, The Girls Come Marching Home: Stories of Women Warriors Returning from Iraq details the lives of women who served in combat after they come home.

A television movie about Margarethe Cammermeyer called Serving in Silence, was made in 1995, with Glenn Close starring as Cammermeyer. Cammermeyer, a retired colonel in the Washington National Guard, disclosed in 1989 that she was a lesbian. The movie's content was largely taken from Cammermeyer's autobiography of the same name.

Fiction

In the People's Republic of China, one of the Eight Model Plays was Red Detachment of Women, which concerns female units in the Maoist military.

Science fiction

A notable tendency of science fiction since the 1940s is to place women in dominant military roles. These are often command positions, in some cases for the express purpose of having a woman in command (as was the case for Captain Kathryn Janeway, where the ship having a female captain was used as a selling point). In some cases, this is accompanied by a complete desegregation of the sexes, such as in Starship Troopers, where no one showed any compunctions about undressing, showering, etc. in front of the other gender.

Another example, from the Stargate franchise, is Major (later Colonel) Samantha Carter, an air force officer who was placed in command of a front-line unit.

Women openly serve in both frontline infantry and special operations units in the game series Mass Effect and Gears of War.

In numerous games, such as Starcraft, women appear as fierce warriors.

See also

• List of women who sparked a revolution
• List of women warriors in folklore
• List of wartime crossdressers
• Women in the military by country
• Women in the workforce

References

Scholarly studies

• Elshtain, Jean Bethke. Women and War (1995)
• Elshtain Jean, and Sheila Tobias, eds., Women, Militarism, and War (1990),
• Frampton, James Scott The Influence of Attitudes and Morale on the Performance of Active-Duty United States Marine Corps Female Security Guards (2011),
• Goldstein, Joshua S. . War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa (2003), psychology perspective
• Jones, David. Women Warriors: A History, Brassey's, 1997
• Salmonson, Jessica Amanda (1991). The Encyclopedia of Amazons: Women Warriors from Antiquity to the Modern Era. Paragon House. ISBN 1-55778-420-5. 

World War II

• Bidwell, Shelford. The Women's Royal Army Corps (London, 1977) on Britain
• Campbell, D'Ann. Women at War with America: Private Lives in a Patriotic Era (Harvard University Press, 1984). on WW2
• Campbell, D'Ann. "Servicewomen of World War II", Armed Forces and Society (Win 1990) 16: 251-270. statistical study based on interviews
• Campbell, D'Ann. "Women in Combat: The World War Two Experience in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union" Journal of Military History (April 1993), 57:301-323. online edition
• Cottam, K. Jean Soviet Airwomen in Combat in World War II (Manhattan, KS: Military Affairs/Aerospace Historian Publishing, 1983)
• DeGroot G.J. "Whose Finger on the Trigger? Mixed Anti-Aircraft Batteries and the Female Combat Taboo," War in History, Volume 4, Number 4, December 1997, pp. 434–453
• Dombrowski, Nicole Ann. Women and War in the Twentieth Century: Enlisted With or Without Consent (1999)
• Weatherford, Doris. American Women During World War II: An Encyclopedia (2009)

Current

• Carreiras, Helena and Gerhard Kammel (eds.) Women in the Military and in Armed Conflict (2008) excerpt and text search
• Goldman, Nancy. "The Changing Role Of Women In The Armed Forces." American Journal Of Sociology 1973 78(4): 892-911. Issn: 0002-9602 online in Jstor
• Herbert, Melissa S. Camouflage Isn't Only for Combat: Gender, Sexuality, and Women in the Military New York U. Pr., 1998.
• Holm, Jeanne M. (1993). Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution. ; women from the United States
• Skaine, Rosemarie. Women at War: Gender Issues of Americans in Combat. McFarland, 1999.

Middle East

• Holmstedt, Kirsten. Band of Sisters: American Women at War in Iraq (2007) excerpt and text search
• Holmstedt, Kirsten. "The Girls Come Marching Home"
• Wise, James E. and Scott Baron. Women at War: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Conflicts (2006)

Websites

Green Berets

• BBC News Online on May 31, 2002: 'Long, hard struggle' for green beret retrieved on March 12, 2007
• BBC News Online on May 31, 2002: Superwoman Pip's green beret test retrieved on March 12, 2007

Joan of Arc

• Joan of Arc archive retrieved on March 12, 2007
• Maid of Heaven extensive site about Joan of Arc, retrieved on March 12, 2007

Women Veterans

• The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project located in the Special Collections and University Archives Department at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
• Textiles and Artifacts from Women in World War 1 located in the Special Collections and University Archives Department at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Miscellaneous

• blitzkriegbaby.de site for Women in the military retrieved on March 12, 2007
• Women in the Military: A Selected Bibliography, Jacqueline S. Bey, 2005, retrieved on March 12, 2007
• Iraqi Bloggers Central: Oldest American Servicewoman Killed In Combat retrieved on March 12, 2007
• militarywoman.org MilitaryWoman retrieved on March 12, 2007
• post-gazette.com retrieved on March 12, 2007
• womensenews.org retrieved on March 12, 2007
• The History of a Hello Girl retrieved on July 17, 2007
• When Janey Comes Marching Home Multi-Media project on women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan in the Virginia Quarterly Review

Further reading

Booth, Bradford. 2003. “Contextual Effects of Military Presence on Women’s Earnings.” Armed Forces & Society, vol. 30: pp. 25–51. http://afs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/1/25

Cooney, Richard; Segal, Mady Wechsler; Segal, David and Falk, William. 2003. “Racial Differences in the Impact of Military Service on the Socioeconomic Status of Women Veterans.” Armed Forces & Society, vol. 30: pp. 53–85. http://afs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/1/53

Moore, Brenda. 1991. “African American Women in the U.S. Military.” Armed Forces & Society vol. 17: pp. 363–384. http://afs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/17/3/363

Iskra, Darlene. 2007. “Attitudes toward Expanding Roles for Navy Women at Sea: Results of a Content Analysis.” Armed Forces & Society, vol. 33: pp. 203–223. http://afs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/33/2/203

Dar, Yechezkel and Shaul Kimhi. 2004. “Youth in the Military: Gendered Experiences in the Conscript Service in the Israeli Army.” Armed Forces & Society, vol. 30: pp. 433–459. http://afs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/3/433

“Michele Jones: A History of Firsts.” The Story of America's Black Patriots http://www.forloveofliberty.net/stories/michele-jones-history-firsts/36