Women and combat roles

Women and combat roles

Women are competent in combat roles just as males are. Centuries have passed, gender depriving beliefs are becoming a past issue and since things seem to have been modernized, we should keep on holding to traditions about gender roles. Women should be entrusted with military responsibilities and given a chance to take part in direct combat assignments. The discussion but who should join the military jobs and who shouldn’t is supposed to be based on the qualification of the person and the standard of their skills but not on their gender. As long as there is no one getting a free ride through the military roles then gender different ion shouldn’t be an issue. What matters is what one is capable to do and not how masculine or feminine they appear to be.

Physical fitness is a major concern when it comes to assigning of combat roles( Goldstein, Andrea, 2018,12-14). The argument against women taking up combat roles claims that women naturally lack the physical abilities to do any harsh tasks. In the combat sector, every task demands physical prowess. Its true women are prone to get injuries easily because their skin isn’t dense enough. Well, to my knowledge level women can be subjected to extra pre-training for muscle ability. If they undergo a standard muscle building exercise the injuries rate in the battlefield can be reduced. With the modern way, military services should be characterized more by technology expertise knowledge and not muscle strengths. In today’s battlefield situations, good critical thinking and decision-making skills are more essential than how much strength one has to fight.

Recruiting an equal gender number for combat jobs can be a better solution to solving military readiness rather than focusing on reducing women recruit. According to ( Nuciari, Marina Springer, Cham, 2018. 301-325) women are easily emotionally disrupted. For instance, if a woman is involved in a sexual relationship with one of the males in the military force it can hinder her from concentrating with performing her duties because psychologically, women are said to be emotionally weak. Again according to the opposition’s view about women joining women taking up combat roles, is the issue of women getting pregnant and being forced to leave their position undertaken in case she was the only one competent for that post if the role could only be performed by a woman. However, this is a situation that be easily solved by making sure that gender equality is considered in recruitment. In that, if one woman has to leave for maternity leave there is another one in the team to take up the position.

People against the idea of women taking up combat roles argue that women are less accurate in their shooting than men. Men are said to have a clear and accurate shoot which places them to be said to be more effective for the job. This is a tactical concern where first of all I think in tactical skills women surpass men with incomparable range. Men might be able to have better shooting skills but with the lack of women emotional and sensitivity handling skills they wouldn’t be able to survive long in the battlefield. Women are capable of connecting to people emotionally and can play around with someone’s weaknesses and strengths so much easier than men can. We all can agree that skills and techniques are so much better in the society that we living today and the issue happening today than machine shooting. And again, shooting accuracy is something that can be improved by continuous training and it’s not anywhere near a suitable reason to keep women away from being in the combat jobs.

Women being exposed to the risk of being captured, tortured, and even getting raped is another argument that opposes women joining of the armed force jobs. In my opinion, sexual orientation has changed and both women and men can be sexually assaulted. There is the issue of homosexuality in today’s society and if a man gets captured by a gay gangster he can as well get assaulted sexually. Laying argument in a way that we intend to mean that females are the only people capable of suffering this kind of torture is just more of gender injustices and not a precaution.

Pre-existing traditions about gender roles is another hindrance to combat jobs being opened to both genders (Klenke, Karin, 2018). Being masculine has been given priority in the harsh professions and the culture has been maintained and it almost looks like the normality. People have held on to the culture of regulating what women indulge in. women are only thought to belong to the delicate home surrounded duties. At some point, the military only gave the women combat roles that were not involved with the direct handling of the military roles and the only work they could do entail things like clerical work, and nursing positions.

Women lack the morale and cohesion that is needed in the military missions. Women portray mood swings which can interrupt their working morale and those that are around them because of they when in a bad mood they might be unwilling to undertake any teamwork activities. Emotional drawbacks happens to everyone. In my consent, men as well can experience depressing moments that drains them their morale and therefore morale spirits issues shouldn’t in any way get tied up to the female gender.

In conclusion, although the issue of gender equality in the military sector has improved in the past centuries, the social stigmatization that governs traditions in the combat roles still exists. In my opinion, both genders have circumstances they are most effective than others and therefore it should be advocated that gender shouldn’t be a major issue when recruiting military personnel. Mixing up of gender doubles up the talent pool and ensures that all the skills needed in the military sector are taken care of. Having a wider and capable person should be the first priority and women willing to join the military and take up combat jobs should be the same jobs as males as long as they have what it takes. Qualifications should matter more in the recruiting and the job allocation than intimidation of feminism.

References

Goldstein, Andrea N. ” Why are you trying to destroy the last good thing men have?” Understanding resistance to women in combat jobs.” International Feminist Journal of Politics (2018): 1-20.

Sanín, Francisco Gutiérrez, and Francy Carranza Franco. “Organizing women for combat: The experience of the FARC in the Colombian war.” Journal of Agrarian Change 17.4 (2017): 770-778.

Nuciari, Marina. “Participation and Change in Gendered Organizations. Women in the Military Forces.” Handbook of the Sociology of the Military. Springer, Cham, 2018. 301-325.

Klenke, Karin. Women in Leadership 2nd Edition: Contextual Dynamics and Boundaries. Emerald Publishing Limited, 2017.