A New War Brings New Role for Women
The Clinton administration’s decision in 1994 to lift the so-called risk rule means that about 90 percent on military jobs are open to women and that they serve in hostile zones. Over all more than 200,000 women serve in the armed forces… The role of women in the military began to grow significantly after 1973, when the draft ended and recruiters looked to women to help fill the ranks.
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This New York Times article from 2003 Starts by telling the story of a female POW and debates on was it actually considered a support unit in a war with no real front line. After the turn over of the risk rule it is still up for debate for many US citizens whether women should be fighting in active duty combat roles. As the war in Iraq is growing and women are becoming better accepted into these combat roles many still say that seeing a woman as a POW bothers them much more than seeing a man. After 9/11 many men and women joined the armed forces in order to do their part and fight back for their country after seeing it so brutally attacked. The soldiers that fight for the US are meant to be considered as equals in the majority of positions that can be filled in the military, however some still think that women should not be in the middle of the fight.
Sunday Morning, Flashpoint: The Way Home
link to full video: https://envoy.dickinson.edu:6328/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cvideo_work%7C3167136
This source is a segment from the program Sunday Morning that aired in 2007 and highlights two female combat amputees who had lost an arm and a hand. Dawn and Juanita talk about how they deal with a combat injury different then how men deal with them, because men tend to wear them as a badge of honor for their time serving, while women try to make them look as normal as possible and try to look normal. During this point women are not supposed to be fighting on the front lines, however as the war in Iraq goes on it is clear that there is no true front line and many women are right in the middle of the fight. Women like Dawn and Juanita are the kind that set the path for more to follow them and take larger roles in order to be equal to their male counterparts.
The Marines Didn’t Think Women Belonged in the Infantry. She’s Proving Them Wrong
But Lieutenant Hierl is the first woman in the Marine Corps to lead an infantry platoon — a historic moment for a male-dominated organization that had fiercely opposed integrating female troops into combat, something that still unsettles many within the ranks.
Lieutenant Hierl is one of four platoon commanders in Echo Company. Her presence, first eyed with skepticism, appears to have been quietly accepted.
Thirty-seven women have attended the Marines Corps’ Infantry Officer Course at Quantico, Va., for 13 weeks of combat evaluations and miles long hikes carrying heavy loads. Only two women have passed.
Of those two women, only Lieutenant Hierl has been given a platoon of roughly 35 men to lead.
Link to full article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/us/politics/marines-women-combat-platoon.html
This New York Times article from August 2018 is showing a historic change in the Marines through the addition of their first female platoon leader, Lieutenant Hierl. She says that she doesn’t want the extra attention that comes with being the first, she just wants to be treated equally. Because women were finally allowed into full combat roles in 2013 she wanted to be able to serve for her country and didn’t think that her being a woman was a reason that she shouldn’t be able to do it. As more women are trying to push through the armed forces highly male dominated positions it is clear that women want the same basic right to fight for their country that men have had from the start. As the US continues to keep troops in the Middle east the fight that was started in September 2001 continues on.