There has been a long debate in the military wheatear woman should have the same standards in the military and if they should be allowed to join combat roles in the military, like infantry, artillery, and armor.  These jobs require the person in them to be at the peak of their physical condition having to go on marches through hundred-degree weather with packs that are hundreds of pounds.  The ethics of integrating woman into these positions are prominent as the United States Military can not decimate against woman because of preconceived thoughts that they can not succeed in these roles. Woman and have a lot of ground to make having a lot of hurdles to overcome.  A big part is that woman in the military are not treated as people in the military but as woman.  So, instead of being treated equally they are being treated as someone who is weaker and needs help.  Though woman should be allowed to be integrated into these roles, the standards should not change.  If they are allowed to join these roles they should have to prove themselves like everyone else striving to get into these roles especially when it comes to special operations like Green Berets, Navy Seals, and Rangers.  Everyone deserves to try out for these roles but only the best of the best are allowed in and it should stay that way.   On the battlefield, it does not matter who you are you have to be strong enough to do your job.  Though it may be harder for woman to pass tests that are equal to men’s, they should not be held back because of pre-conceived notions about them. 

The integration of woman in the military is a slow prosses that has had many hurdles and failures along the way due to short comings in the full testing of the issue. In a test conducted by the Marine Corps they attempted to integrate woman into Basic training of basic combat roles to almost complete failure.  There is not a lot of information before now because the Marine Core says it was “treated this as a gender-blind process.”(Harrlell,Margarat 76).  Also, how in the test conducted by the Marine Corps only one woman has made it through training but was medically dropped and most likely recycled.  The most interesting part is that woman are not even allowed into the ranks because “their role supporting direct combat ground units, combat engineer battalions are closed to female Marines.”( Harrlell,Margarat 77)  The woman have a disadvantage from the jump, as that they cannot even join these positions without getting an automatic denial.  Overall woman face a lot of adversity from the gate.  Without an explanation why, but only knowing that they are not allowed into combat roles they have no opportunity to succeed.  With these automatic denials, other inequalities arise. “If the closed assignments are per-ceived as unappealing to men, the women may be resented for com-pelling their male colleagues to be assigned to the less-attractive assignments while the women fill the more-appealing assignments.”( Harrlell,Margarat 78)  With the Marines shutting the door for woman they are also shutting the door for men who are forced into positions they do not want to be in.   Forcing people into positions that they do not want to be in spells failure for the rest of the Military.  If someone does not want to be in a position they are assigned to, they will not do it at one hundred percent which will cause failures further down the road.

Though the test was not a success this should not hold woman back.  The success of one woman shows that it can be done.  It shows that all the preconceived notions were wrong and that woman can make it with the hard standards set before them.  Although, she was dropped due to medical problems this means that there are other woman out there that could also pass and start making progress in these fields.  “They assume women will only serve in support roles unless able to prove via physical strength test ability to fill more physically demanding combat occupations. But such testing would allow capable people to intentionally avoid difficult, high mortality assignments. Simply put, reserving all the support jobs for women constitutes unequal treatment, and drafted men aren't likely to accept women occupying an unfair share of low-risk jobs”(The Truth).  Opening the positions would greatly help with the view of woman in the military helping them to be viewed as equals.  If they were opened the slow integration of the portion of woman who can pass he tests would help with the further acceptance of woman in all positions.  It just takes one to show that it is possible and would inspire others to strive towards these goals causing a domino effect of acceptance throughout the military.

A pre-conceded notion is that "Women who enter formerly closed units and MOSs [Military Occupational Specialty] will be volunteers”(The Truth),but this would not be true they would we subjected to the same regulations as men. Men are often forced into these positions against their will, “in 1999, at West Point, a number of men were forced into permanent infantry assignments. Every year, per Army Regulation 614-100, men are branch-detailed from their chosen branches into the infantry” (The Truth).  This would help the integration of woman and help with promote equality.  With equal standards, woman would gain respect throughout the Military that they have not had before. With “The military currently prefers to remediate those who can't meet physical standards. An infantry soldier unable to keep pace can't just drop out of the infantry”(The Truth), keeping the standards where they need to be but also, making woman more capable and showing the rest of the Military that it is possible.  

Woman are dealing with ‘equal but different’ physical standards”(Gender Equality) which will only lead to men and woman still not being truly equal.  These jobs in the military require each person to be in peak physical condition and the missions success can not be reached if compromises are made.  Ethically is not fair that some should be held to higher standards and others not even with the differences between men and woman “we want the best and most qualified defending our freedoms and way of life. It doesn’t matter if they are pretty, ugly, male, female, tall, or short, as long as they are the best physically, mentally, and emotionally to accomplish the mission of defending our nation”(Gender Equality).  The mission is the same for both and you have to carry the same load, carry the same injured person out of combat, and go through the same physical requirements during a mission.  The enemy is the same and the mission does not get easier because someone was born with a XX genetic make up or a XY, “the mission standard of these critical and vital units must not be lowered to meet the needs of females. If women are able to meet the physical standards required of the position, then good for them. They should then be granted every opportunity that a man is offered”(Gender Equality).

Woman have been fighting this battle for decades and have overcome so much that this is getting ridiculous.  A quote from Capt. Serrano is that the attempt for woman to be integrated is people just trying to “stir the pot”( DO Belong) using it as an excuse as people trying to be politically correct and push their agenda.  He is steering the conversation intentionally in the wrong direction to try and take credibility away from the hard working woman in the Military.  Capt. Serrano’s argument completely breaks stasis by not agreeing on the meaning and nature of the issue at hand.  He also does not agree on a plan of action.  His idea of solving the problem is attacking anyone who tries to bring up the subject or make any real progress.  If the conversation cannot reach stasis then no progress can be made.  The thoughts of society are not what should bar woman from making progress,“ the needs of the Marine Corps are more important to society”(DO Belong).   The Military is directly related to society and is a bit part of it the United States would not be the same without the progress the Military has made.  The Culture of the US is deeply wrapped up in the Military and progress in one is progress in the other.  The US is a country perpetuated by war and would not be what it is today without the Military, so progress is integral to the Military being a part of society.  The way the Military is viewed is often a repetition of the US as a whole.  

If woman are not integrated correctly there will be a lack of success in all the branches of the military.  In the military cohesion is key to success if everyone is not on the same page physically and mentally the strict system will fail. ”A unit that lacks these attributes may fail, and the price paid can cost lives and sacrifice mission accomplishment. Those who oppose allowing women in ground combat units argue that a female presence negatively impacts unit cohesion, readiness and performance”(Marines or MARINES).  People will lose their lives if there is not complete integration.  Everyone has to be on board to make these important changes because without the complete confidence of everyone involved people will die.  If you do not have complete confidence in the man or woman next to you there will be unwanted consequences.  through assumed physical weaknesses, improper relationships, sexual misconduct, perceived preferential treatment, or mismatched abilities -- will damage units from the inside out.   “We hear that men cannot adapt to the presence of women in combat or will be fatally distracted by women. Therefore, women should not be allowed. Such assumptions undermine the integrity, intelligence, dedication, and professionalism of all Marines of both genders who have served capably and honorably together under the broadest conditions and place responsibility for any interpersonal conflict squarely on the shoulders of women”(Marines or MARINES).  Thoughts like that are dangerous and stunt growth, change, and endanger the mission.  It is not woman’s responsibility or fault with the problems of integration if someone can not accept or is too distracted with woman in their ranks they do not belong in the Military.  The Military is a brotherhood/sisterhood where strong individuals come together and defend freedom.  The way we should define freedom is the allowance of everyone to achieve and do what they strive to do.  With the present way the Military is oppressing woman, they are not truly free to achieve to their full potential so with the oppression of a group in what we call our finest men and woman can we truly call any of ourselves free.

The whole culture of the Military has to change if integration is going to be a success.  The prevalence of sexual assault and rape in the Military has to change " Given the high rates of rape in the military, it is not surprising that 44 % of respondents (N = 11) reported both concern about sexual assault and active work to prevent it, especially during deployments. In addition, 12 % (N = 3) reported that they were not particularly concerned about sexual assault, but only because of the steps they took to prevent it”(Vulnerable Warriors).  With such high concerns about sexual abuse there is a lot of underlying problems that need to be changed especially with more integration of woman in the military. With woman being scared about their safety there can not be trust between each other in the field stories like: “After we learned that we were going to deploy, one of my cousins told me that she had been raped when she had deployed. And then other women in my barracks started talking about women they’d known from basic training who had been raped in Afghanistan. I started getting really scared”(Vulnerable Warriors)” are unacceptable and are very unproductive. This sets back the whole integration discussion as the Military can not function with distrust.  

Sexual assault in the Military and in general is a huge problem but using it as an excuse to keep woman from joining these roles is unacceptable.  It is something that needs to be addressed further and has to have more opportunity for woman to seek help and not be put into such situations, but thoughts like Capt. Serrano’s making  points like “incorporating women into infantry ranks will increase the number of cases [of sexual assault/harassment] in infantry units,” and that is a serious concern that we will need to address”(DO Belong).  This is pushing off a already prevalent problem.  Just because it is an issue does not mean we do not have to make progress and is counterproductive.  This is the same as saying that if sexual assault is a problem then woman should not be allowed to do anything.  So if that is true woman should not be able to leave the house because of fear of them being assaulted and further no one should leave their houses because they might get hurt.  This type of thinking can lead to a domino effect that would lead to a lot of relapses of progressive thought.  The Military can not and society can not either.  To make progress we have acknowledge the faults in said progress but that does not mean we stay stagnant.  If society in general wants to make strides in becoming truly equal there will be hurdles but overcoming them is crucial.

Overall having woman in combat is critical to becoming equal.  The Military will always have an air of inequality until steps are taken to change.  Thinking that woman are not qualified for these positions only hurts the Military as a whole. The resistance only generates instability in the ranks and with distrust the Military can not function.  Where it comes to equality the standards should not change.  Equality is everyone getting the same opportunity to succeed, but that does not mean there should be acceptations for some and not for others.  This again will just create distrust and anger between soldiers that think some got to where they did unfairly which compromises the mission. Everyone needs to be on an even playing field for this to work.  Which means changing Pt expectation to be the same for everyone.  Once this occurs the ball can start rolling and men and woman can truly be unified in the ranks.  With all the underlying problems the Military already faces it is key to come at this difficult problem in all directions.  The Military as a whole has to change is pre-conceived notions about woman.  Changing these thoughts will help the integration prosses and it will not happen over night, but staring and letting woman prove themselves is integral. Letting woman prove themselves is the best way of changing the views of men and woman in the Military today. 
