Where are all the women in a position of power in the military? Most average American's may ask themselves that when they see high-ranking military officials briefing the nation publicly on the news. If you look up the names of top military officials from each branch of the Military the results will show not many female names if any, unless it's the Air Force. For as long as this nation has been around women have had to fight each step of the way to gain equality in terms of human rights, but somehow until October of 2015 the Department of Justice and The Pentagon were able to restrict what positions they made available to women. In Fort Benning, Georgia in October of 2015 two women, Kristen Griest and Shaye Haver broke down gender barriers by successfully graduating the military's toughest test Army Ranger School. By catching national headiness, the women's incredible accomplishment finally brought about the discussion of whether to lift all restrictions on women's positions in the military. If anyone looked deeply into military history they'd see gender inequality first hand and the sources in this essay have seen it first hand and speak about the blatant inequality and sexual stereotyping within all of the militaries branches. 

As I began researching this topic I started out with the opinion that not a lot of women join the military, so why is this even an issue? But as I began reading through articles on the topic I realized that more women are joining the military now more than ever and that some people believe their physical limitations are actually more helpful than men in certain positions; that is of course only if the military's Gentlemen's Club allows a women to fill that position. Being in the military is a constant fight for women, from proving that they are as physically capable as men, too living and working, "around sexual bias and rampant sexual crimes that often go unreported because it is done by superiors." (Moritz, Women in the Military) As Hospital Corpsman First Class Tarren Windham put it in her interview with Dani Moritz, a journalist for the women's rights based site muse.com. After enough research and locating enough credible sources to support my ideas and as the essay progresses it will prove that The Department of Defense and The Pentagon were aware of their blatant inequality, how deep sexism really runs within the military, and how much it affects women officers. Sexism is rampant in all branches of the United States military and unless something is done to address these issues even with restrictions lifted women will never get a fair chance to lead.

Women's limited role in our nations military has always been on the backburner and as recently as last year, The Pentagon had no intention of ever taking it off the backburner. Military officials have used the cliche that mental disadvantages plague women in battle along with glaring physical limitations but this age old assumption was proven illegitimate, "the old cliche is that women and men think so differently that it's as though they were from different planets. But when it comes to their brains, the difference is more akin to living in nearly identical houses in a generic suburb." (Ghose, Women in Battle). Tia Ghose a staff writer from livescience.com wrote an article about the general misconceptions on why women were restricted from certain positions within the military. This misconception is so evident by the rumors of military outcry that the first two women to pass Army Ranger School were held to different standards both in physical and mental testing, during their time at the school. Major General Scott Miller a guest speaker at the graduation ceremony addressed those claims immediately. "Ladies and gentlemen ... standards are still the same ... a 5-mile run is still a 5-mile run. Standards do not change. A 12-mile march is still a 12-mile march," (Neuman, Female Soldiers Graduate Army Ranger School) he stated promptly. The two women, 1st Lt. Shaye Haver age 25, and Captain Kristen Griest age 26, received their Ranger tabs in Fort Benning, Georgia. The argument that no woman isn't' physically capable enough to fight in frontline combat was proven inaccurate and could no longer hold up as an excuse for the restrictions set in place for women in combat without drawing public attention. Although the Department of Defense has made it clear through, " A study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that men had an average of 26 lbs. (12 kilograms) more skeletal muscle mass than women. Women also exhibited about 40 percent less upper-body strength and 33 percent less lower-body strength, on average." (Ghose, Women in Battle). This study used to be the basis of why women were not allowed on the frontlines until the 1st Lt. Shaye Haver and Captain Kristen Griest showed that some women given the opportunity are gifted enough to overcome natural physical limitations. The significance of their feat has no ceiling; these two women secured the biggest victory for females in their battle for equality within the military. Soon after the Major General's comments, on December 3 2015, The Department of Defense announced they would lift all gender based military restrictions starting in 2016.

The issue of women's equality within the military is still an extremely prevalent issue even though all restrictions on women in the military have been lifted. The Gentlemen's Club atmosphere of our armed forces fosters intense sexual bias, "Sometimes, before you even check into a command [present orders to superiors after being transferred], they will look at the orders of the incoming personnel and see that it's a woman. The first thing people start talking about is, 'I wonder if she's hot, I wonder if she puts out, I wonder if she's fat.'"(Moritz, Women in the Military), Hospital Corpsman First Class Tarren Windham explains a common occurrence when doing a simple task like switching into a new infantry unit. These immature comments are only part of a larger picture, sexual bias inhibiting a women's ability to progress in her career path. Major Eleanor Taylor of the Canadian Military see's career paths of her peers ruined far too often, "As combat duty is usually regarded as necessary for promotion to senior officer positions, denying female personal this experience ensures that very few will ever reach the highest reaches of military and so further entrenches sexism." (Taylor, Women in Combat Pro's and Con's). The inability to be exposed to intense combat scenarios that could alter a soldier's career path is one of the main reasons why it is hard to find high-ranking female officials, not because there aren't enough applicants to choose from. Tarren Windham also added in her interview with Dani Moritz that she had even been told that she, ""shouldn't try and work outside of [her administrative duties] because that's what girls are good at." (Moritz, Women in the Military), this quote is a quintessential example of why women have a hard time finding promotions. A segment from an article by TIME Magazines senior writer Mark Thompson addresses the fact that some military branches leave no hope at all for a women soldier's advancement through combat rankings,

"The Air Force and Navy, which do little fighting on the ground, have already opened up 98% of their slots to women, and their uniformed leaders have approved going all the way. But that has been a relatively easy choice compared with the decision to add women to the ranks of combat infantry in the Army and the Marines. While the Army, which currently allows women in 82% of its jobs, is green-lighting all jobs for women so long as they can meet certain physical standards, the Marines are holding out, Pentagon officials say. Marine ground-combat units, which make up 25% of Marine slots, should remain all-male bastions, according to recommendations from corps officials." (Thompson, Sending Women to War).

       The United States Marine Corps remains adamant that their brand of fighting is not physically conducive to a women's body and puts them in too much harm physically. Earlier in the essay I mentioned the two women who had graduated the Army Ranger School, both of these women made it possible for The Department of Defense to overlook the Marines claims and finally be able to appropriately lift all legal restrictions women had within military. Marine Corps is still the biggest motivator of the militaries "Gentlemen's Club" condemnation and shows that with only 8% of their entire personnel being female, 7% lower than the second lowest branch Army at 14%, followed by Navy at 18% and the Air Force at 19% nearly one-fifth of all personnel in the Air Force are women (Thompson, Sending Women to War). 

The Air Force plays a unique role in the argument of women's equality within the military because senior Air Force officials were the first to declare that women could fill a unique role within their branch and the hiring of women for certain positions became necessary not mandatory. Women have been on the forefront of aerial combat for sixty plus years. The first military organization to fully incorporate women created a branch within the Air Force just for women pilots called WAF (Women in the Air Force) was formed by President Harry Truman in 1948 after he signed the Women's Armed Services Integration Act allowing women to serve directly in the military. This was simply the allowance of women in positions military officials deemed fit for women. The military caught on quickly that women make inherently adept fighter pilots because of their size in relation to a cockpit (WAF, WAF History). 

The second most inclusive branch towards women, the Navy, parallels the Air Force in their treatment towards women. The Navy currently has one Admiral and three Vice Admirals that are women, showing people every day that once given the opportunity women can lead any group of people. Admiral Michelle Howard is the active Admiral and she is the first women and first African American to ever hold the position. (www.public.navy.mil, Top Officers). The Air Force gets credit for being the most accepting towards women soldiers but the Navy has made strides in offering new positions to women. The Navy and Air Force have ushered in the era of reliance on women soldiers but have been fought every step of the way by their fellow military branches the Marine Corps and the Army.

The Marine Corps and the Army are the main reasons why the military is referred to as a Gentlemen's Club by women like Hospital Corpsman First Class Tarren Windham. Only 8% of all 178,000 marines are women. The military officials believe infantry and artillery units are not suited for women. "According to Defense Department data, as of February 29, 2012, a total of 183,714 service members are deployed (20,062 were female, or 10.92%)." (Burelli, Women in Combat: Issues for Congress) these statistics highlight the lack of equality women receive. Women find it hard to progress in the Marine Corps and the Army so they often times find other professions entirely. 25% of positions in the Marine Corps are closed to women, which is a quarter of 178,000 marines. The Marines take the criticism head on and use the same type of response when confronted with a question regarding females in infantry units, 

"To move forward in expanding opportunities for our female service members without considering the timeless, brutal, physical and absolutely unforgiving nature of close combat is a prescription for failure," an internal Marine study completed in August concluded. "Those who choose to turn a blind eye to those immutable realities do so at the expense of our corps' war fighting capability and, in turn, the security of the nation." (Thompson, Sending Women to War)

The physical limitations of women is the only real argument you can make regarding the issue of women being restricted from military positions for as long as our military has been established until those two women passed the Army Ranger School test proving once and for all that some women can in fact fight in infantry units on the frontlines.

Another problem that holding women back within the military creates, is a safety issue for women who are in field analysts positions right off the frontline getting ambushed and finding themselves with less training but on the true frontlines of battle. Zoe Bedell a women who served in the Marine Corps for 4 tours of service, gave a TEDx talk at Harvard Law School about her experience over seas. She said "If you go on patrol everyone is wearing the same uniform, everyone is wearing the same gear, everyone is carrying the same rifle ... women marines look the same as infantry units but are less equipped when ambushed in local villages." (Bedell, TEDx Talks), an intense claim like the one Zoe Bedell made truly opened my eyes to the entire issue of women being restricted from fighting on the frontlines. Bedell's official role was a field engagement officer, she commanded a battalion of 28 female marines that would go into towns and speak with the women and children and report back to the infantry units what they have discovered. Bedell described that situation of entering a village, "there were 2 female marines assigned to each infantry unit, and these women would be usually the only women assigned to the infantry units" (Bedell, TEDx Talks) these women would enter hostile villages with less training than the rest of their battalion, but are in the same amount of danger. Bedell has seen female soldiers get wounded far too many times in battle because they weren't trained to respond to an enemy ambush. The lack of safety has been on the Department of Defenses mind lately issuing an official study framing the issues of health and health research for women in the military. Three doctors published the study and in the introduction they explain, "there is currently no systematic institutional structure in place to regularly and methodically examine gaps in policy, research, and treatment for issues related to women in combat." (McGraw, Koehlmoos, Ritchie 1). The attention to detail given to research into men's physical capabilities and limitations is well documented throughout military history, but until this report no official Department of Defense studies have focused on women's health in regards to frontline combat until this study. 

The study published by Dr. Katie McGraw, Dr. Tracey Koehlmoos, and Dr. Elspeth Ritchie can be a symbol of change for women who want to serve their nation. As women are being allowed into all positions of the military it shows that the Department of Defense realizes now the role women can play in any facet of the military and are devoted to change the reputation of the worlds finest military system as a Gentlemen's Club to something that promotes women's equality. Women have been held back for years either with restrictions or by sexual bias but the United States is in the middle of a revolution within the military. Women have been made equal and free of all civil right limitations they faced and mark the last true women civil rights arguments. 

