When you think of the military, would you think that gender plays a major role in how the institution operates? According to decades of debate, society has been built to believe that women have neither the physical nor emotional strength to work with men in these positions, which puts down women who are already involved. On the other hand, there are those who do believe that women do not hinder the success of men, therefore contradicting what people have been predisposed to believe. The debate of the integration of women into these institutions has been a long one, but there is new hope to come out because of those who are pushing to be the start of a new revolution. The United States, along with various other countries, are looking to increase this inclusion and to expand the roles for women into the male-dominated field. It is important that society opens up to the acceptance that women have the capability to prove themselves as a strong matchup against other men, as history has shown. I’ve come across this issue personally due to the fact that my mother is in the Air Force. She receives great criticism for what she does, mainly because she is a woman in a position of command over many men, who in turn work under her. Her work is tough and the fact that her co-leader is also a woman astonishes me. This is because a majority of people have been brought up learning that men are the more dominant gender. The gender inequality that is expressed by this societal behavior is what drives me to explain why women should not be looked down upon for pursuing careers in the military field due to the long history of successful women who paved the way and the ones who are in the process of making history in today’s century. 

Since the Revolutionary War, the starting point for the advancement of women being integrated into the Armed Forces, women have fought alongside men as nurses, cooks, and laundresses. Even though they weren’t necessarily on the front-line fighting, they were put into supporting roles to fight for the lives of their soldiers. Due to their efforts, “the importance of women in support positions in prior wars convinced the Army to open the military to women on an official level” (Norwhich University), which led to about 30,000 job openings for women to go into service. The emergence of battleground hospitals during the Civil War pushed some women, the ones who worked as nurses, closer to the front line than previously before as other women sought to disguise themselves and enlisted under an alias to be able to serve on the front line to get into the battle. World War I and II were critical points because women became more involved in the non-combat aspects, such as becoming pilots, drivers, and mechanics, as well as working in their traditional positions too. After the strides women made throughout the Civil and World Wars, “Congress passed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, permitting women to serve as permanent members of the military” (Task and Purpose). Now during this time, the only branches opened up to women were the Army and the Navy, but due to the success of women involvement in previous wars led the Air Force and Marines to begin making strides for the inclusion of women. In the later 1900’s, females across all the branches were given the opportunities to fly in combat missions and serve on combat ships, which overturned the previous statement that female sailors and marines could only serve on non-combat ships. Women were on a streak of successful achievements until in 1994 the Secretary of Defense, Les Asprin, ruled that women could not serve in units who were primarily ground combat. This ban would last for several years until in January 2013, Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta lifted it and proposed a two-year deadline for the military to complete integration because “the military wants to move as quickly as possible” (News Editor) and since then there have been various acts and policies set in place to ensure their compliance. 

The trend of women joining the Armed Forces has steadily increased with 14% of women belonging to the armed forces, “more than 165,000 women are enlisted and active in the armed services with over 35,000 additional women serving as officers” (Wood). Many of them have been recognized for their achievements, in which Lin Ho highlights in her article “Seven Famous Women Veterans.”. Emma Edmonds served in many battles during the Civil War under the alias “Franklin Flint Thompson” as a male nurse in the 2nd Michigan Infantry. She also acted as a Union spy, using multiple aliases. Although her time was cut short due to an outbreak of Malaria, “she was awarded an honorable discharge from the military, a government pension, and admittance to the Grand Army of the Republic as its only female member” (Ho). Elise Ott, who was originally a nurse out of New York, served as a member of the Army Nurse Corps that was commissioned to second lieutenant where she had the opportunity to participate in the first ever air evacuation. The air evacuation was a success and Ott earned “the first U.S. Air Medal, the first given to a woman in the U.S. Army, for her role in the evacuation flight” (Ho). Grace Hopper was a commander in the United States Naval Reserves and worked on the Bureau of Ordinance Computation Project. She was credited with creating a program that essentially was known as the first compiler. There is a destroyer and supercomputer named after her in remembrance of all she had done while she was in service. Ann Dunwoody is the first woman to serve as a four-star general for both the United States Armed Forces and the Army. Her most major impact while in service was becoming commander of “one of the largest commands in the Army, employing more than 69,000 employees across all 50 states and 145 countries” (Ho). Kristen Greist and Shaye Haver are the first women to complete the U.S Army’s Ranger school and graduate with their Ranger tabs. A noted point about these women is that these women “completed the course to the same standards as their 94 male classmates” (Neuman), which consisted of obstacles such as, a five-mile run, along with a twelve-mile march. Women are very strong willed and can do anything that they put their minds to. We see this in all women involved in military organizations and how the success of those put before them leads to the success in modern day.

Combat is a brutal position to take on and one of the main issues concerning women is if they are able to be integrated into these units. There have been multiple policy changes concerning this topic where one rule would explain that women are not allowed to, but it would eventually get overturned by another rule stating that women were in fact allowed to because it’s time "to create a level playing field for all qualified service members” (CBS News). Although our world today has become more accepting of women wanting to join the military, many are still doubtful due to three main reasons. The first reason is that women in this role “could hinder cooperation with some allied nations where men are culturally opposed to working with women” (The Editorial Board). The second reason is that women are seen as physically unable to fulfill the fitness standards. Even though there have been policy changes regarding gender integration, one thing not changing is the training standards required by all who wish to serve in the infantry. And lastly, the “backbone” of a unit is seen to come from the bonding that male soldiers experience, and that women disrupt the unit’s cohesion. Another problem women deal with, which makes some claim they shouldn’t be included into troop units, is the problem of sexual harassment. In 2011, many accounts, “3,192 reported cases of sexual assault” (News Editor) to be exact, were recorded. These examples are stated to show the negative connotations that women receive. Women are constantly put down because of these and while statistically facts involving things such as the strength differences between men and women is correct, they are constantly pushing themselves to prove that they are worthy of the positions they are in.

Since the start of the most major wars known in U.S. history, women have been alongside men. Whether it be serving on the front line in disguises, nursing the wounded, or working in the more non-combat positions, women have seen and been through it all. All the negative statements made by people, mainly males who opposed the idea of gender integration, have been disproved by many women, such as Kristen Griest and Shaye Haver. These women showed the bravery they have by not giving up when things got tough and eventually became the most talked about women in the past few years after their graduation from the United States Army Ranger School. People look down on women because they don’t believe they are emotionally or physically fit to keep up with men, and that their inclusion harms the unit cohesion that men usually experience with just a male group. Discrimination of women has been put down by policies that the government implemented to ensure the societal acceptance of women into the military. Although, not everyone agrees with these statements made by the government, even though women have obviously shown that they are capable of keeping up with the male counterparts, and sometimes even surpassing them. Women should not be looked down upon when in these military positions due to all of the reasons stated because gender integration in the military was fought for by many and those who still don’t agree with this congregation of men and women need to realize how far the world has become advanced over the centuries. 
