Today’s New York Times has an article about how the Marines are now looking to recruit women because they are having such a hard time recruiting people to fight the highly unpopular Iraq war. I have to say, I think I’m really uneasy with the idea that the Marines are actively seeking out women, and as mentioned deeper in the article, Latino(a)s. But, I feel like its a tricky issue, so I thought I would spend some time thinking about it out loud over here. I think the idea that the Marines are trying to advertise to “new markets” to increase participation freaks me out because the military has such a long history of sending the most disadvantaged off to war. In a time when so many women are being hit hard by financial problems (such as losing their homes because of the mortgage crisis) and when so many women still make less than men make, it feels a bit to me like recruiting women could really result in recruiting the most disadvantaged women. I can imagine many disadvantaged women being drawn to the armed services because they do offer some steady pay, job training, and in theory, benefits like health coverage (though, we know that is sometimes a joke for soliders returning home) and then being sent off to die for an unpopular, unjust war and maybe not returning to the new, improved life they were promised. I think I also find it offensive that all of a sudden, its OK for women to go fight because they need bodies. I can’t stand when women are allowed to do men’s jobs simply because men won’t do them. That pisses me off, especially when that job seems to involve fighting and dying for something so wrong. The thing I also hate about this is that recruiting women can distract from the real crisis facing our armed services: the idea that no one wants to fight this war and it seems like those returning from war are not taken care of. I’ve always been a big believer in the idea that we should reinstitute the draft because I think it would engage my generation in politics and do a better job of making sure that it is not just the disadvantaged that are sent off to fight. So, I think I can’t help but feel that marketing the armed services to new disadvantaged communities is a poor solution to the problem. Though to be clear, I have no problem with women fighting or being in the military. I just have a problem with a policy that seems to pick on disadvantaged populations instead of addressing the real problems at hand.
April 21, 2008...4:26 pm
This Makes Me Uneasy….
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May 5, 2008 at 12:50 am
Thought: Women were first brought into the working world in a big way simply because we “needed bodies”; you could look at this as a potential catalyst for transforming the male-dominated military culture.
Semi-related, but interesting, study entitled “Pregnancy during Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom.” I wonder how the results of this study would compare to a similar study in, say, Israel, where women in the military is just a part of life. Here’s a couple quotes:
“An inevitable consequence of prolonged deployments and close living quarters continues to be unintended pregnancies. As a result, pregnancy continues to be a real problem for both the deployed female soldier and her unit. This article will discuss the number of pregnancies diagnosed at Camp Doha, Kuwait, over a period of 9 months.”
“As of 2003, women account for 15% or 210,000 of the 1.4 million military personnel. Most are age 35 or younger, 40% are married, and 50% have children, many as single parents. Approximately 9% of the female soldiers are pregnant at any one time. Of the 250,000 troops deployed to Iraq as of March 31, 2003, some 25,000 have been women.”
In the conclusion:
“We advocate that the lessons learned in the first Persian Gulf War and the programs above be combined to help decrease pregnancy among female soldiers in a combat theater. Such a program would assist troop commanders, enable medical personnel to predict trends, and tailor health care needs. Such a program would incorporate patient profiles and assist health care strategists, providers, and individual soldiers to become aware of health disorders.
With one of four females having deployed while pregnant, current screening procedures for deployment must be re-evaluated. The current policy of a negative pregnancy test within 30 days of deployment is not adequate. And, with three-fourths of the pregnancies occurring during deployment, the military must look at new concepts in pregnancy prevention. Modalities such as Plan B (emergency contraception) and menstrual suppression should be explored. The enormous cost of redeployment and loss of unit readiness for preventable causes such as pregnancy can be greatly decreased by designing a military-wide program to address these issues.”
source: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3912/is_200705/ai_n19431431/pg_1
May 5, 2008 at 12:57 am
Searching around, I dug up a much freakier stat:
“The Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine conducted a study in 2004 in which it found that 64 percent of female veterans say they were sexually abused while they were in the military.”
source: http://www.here-now.org/shows/2007/03/20070315_9.asp