Slide 1 : Introducing Topics
From fighting for independence from Great Britain to the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. military has always been a prominent force of defense and symbol of patriotism. Unfortunately, the U.S. military has always been heavily-male dominated and thus I believe it is important to tell the stories of female soldiers. Therefore, one lecture will be dedicated towards the history of the military institution and female soldiers increasing role. The second lecture will mainly go in two two pressing issues for these females which is failing healthcare in terms of contraceptives and high rates of sexual assault.
Slide 2 : Revolutionary War and Civil War
Many of the first documented serving women in the U.S. military were conventional nursed during the Revolutionary War. Historians have also found that some women would disguise themselves as men and fight in combat which became even more common in the Civil War where there were more than 400 women in combat (Women in the Army). They were able to be approved at a recruiter’s station because they “…bound their breasts when necessary, padded the waists of their trousers, cut their hair short, and even adopted masculine names”(Women in the Army) to pass as male as the test was solely on looks.
Slide 3: The Draft
In the 1900s, women continued to serve while many joined the labor force through producing needed equipment and clothing for war. Moreover, many of the jobs received came after the Selective Service Act (1917) which led to 16% of the male workforce going off to war (Women in the Army). Women began to fill these vacancies while really diving into work. By the end of World War I, it was estimated that more than 20% of worker in the “wartime manufacture of electrical machinery, airplanes, and food were women” (Women in the Army). The patriotic time period also saw the greatest involvement of women in the military up to that point with more than 35,000 women serving in WWI (Women in the Army).
Slide 4: Women’s Army Corps
With more women serving in the military, House Representative Edith Nourse Rogers proposed a bill to create the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in 1941 to give women the same benefits as their male-counterparts. This bill was later approved in 1942 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Women in the Army). While the WAAC could be seen as progressive, it still fell short as women “…could not receive overseas pay and were ineligible for government life insurance. If they were killed, their parents could not collect the death gratuity” (Women in the Army). Obviously, the WAAC was not a perfect system and the United States military refusing to integrate women directly left women with many disadvantages. As a result, President Roosevelt signed legislation in 1943 to allow women to have “military status, equal benefits and pay, and the same disciplinary code as men” and the WAAC was changed to the Women’s Army Corps or WAC (Women in the Army). The quote on the side corresponds to the 1942 congressional hearing and it is an example of a negative attitude towards women serving and the prominence of hypermasculinity in military.
Slide 5: World War II
Compared to World War I, the number of military women in World War II grew around ten times to be around 350,00 (Women in the Army). Again, this was a patriotic time period with much female empowerment with cultural symbols like “Rosie the Riveter.” Moreover, women only continued to involve themselves in war efforts so in 1943, 65% of the U.S. aircraft’s industry’s workforce was composed of women (American Women in World War II). Additionally, military women’s efforts in WWII showed great commitment which led to President Harry Truman passing the Women’s Armed Service Integration Act (1948). The act increased the roles women had (no longer mainly needed during times of war) as they could now be active members and receive military/veteran benefits (Women in the Army). Unfortunately, the policy had limitations and the act “…placed a two percent ceiling on the number of women in each of the services” (Bellafaire). Therefore, this policy furthered the male-dominated culture in the military by putting quotas on military women.
Slide 6: 1950-2000
Into the second half of the 20th century, much progress was made for women who served due to passed legislation. In 1967, President Johnson signed Public Law 90-130, a document that removed “promotion and retirement restrictions” which allowed more women the possibility to achieve the ranking of colonel or general officer rank which in turn, eliminated the WAC guidelines of “two percent limits” (Women in the Army). Three years later, President Ford approved Public Law 94-106 that allowed women into all service academies. Two years later, Congress finally allowed women to be part of the U.S. military, instead of in their own separate corps (WAC) with the approval of Public Law 95-584 (Women in the Army). Unfortunately, some restrictive policies were also enacted for women serving. In 1994, the “Direct Ground Combat Definition and Assignment Rule” was established to allow woman to serve in any positions other than below brigade level (Women in the Army).
Slide 7: 21st Century
The current century is in an era heavily plagued with terrorist attacks. As a result, the United States has geared much of its attention towards the military and combat as well as peace-keeping techniques. For example in Afghanistan, the army has established Female Engagement Teams (FET) and Combat Support Teams (CST) that have the unique duties “including intelligence gathering, relationship building, and humanitarian efforts” (Women in the Army). Women are in charge of these units as males were not deemed as suitable for breaking through walls in the case of foreign civilian efforts. Additionally, there was major progress for women in the military due to legislation in 2016 that declared for the first time in history that women could serve in all military occupations (Women in the Army). This opened up more than 220,000 roles for military women (Miklaszewski). This is monumental as women are found qualified to fight in combat as well as men, breaking some of the hyper-masculine ideas in the military.
Slide 8: The Military Today
In 2017, Stockholm International Peace Research Institution found that the United States spends $610 billion dollars on defense compared to $578 billion spent by the next seven countries (U.S. Defense Spending). What do you guys think of this and the United States obsession with defense spending? Moreover, the defense spending comes from 15% of all federal spending as well as 50% of discretionary spending (U.S. Defense Spending) proving to be very financially expensive. For 2019, President Trump is proposing a budget of $750 billion (Browne). Therefore, the United States clearly supports funding of the military. The question looms on the government's efforts in supporting those that serve, especially women.
Slide 9: Reviewing Sexual Assault from 2009-2015
The two selected charts on the slide come from the Department of Defense Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military in Fiscal Year 2015. The first chart is used to show the increase of sexual assault from 20019-2015 as well as highlight how most were during military service. Therefore, members of the military are being sexually assaulted in their place of work. The second chart is what the DOD considers “sexual assault” and how reportings are broken into those main categories.
Slide 10: Sexual Assault in 2017
In 2017, the Defense Department revealed that sexual assault reportings in the military had increased by 10%. Moreover, 5,864/6,789 of the reportings were from service members while 868 were from U.S. civilians. The remaining 37 reportings were not available for further data (Ferdinando). This exemplifies the very current issue of sexual assault in the military. Fortunately, more and more women and men in the military are becoming more comfortable with reporting. The Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office found that in 2017 about ⅓ military members reported sexual assault compared to 1/14 in 2006 (Ferdinando). The reason for no earlier data is that the Department of Defense did not start keeping track of reported assaults until 2006.
Slide 11: Sexual Assault Cases in 2017 Legal Actions
Furthermore on the topic of legal actions for 2017 reported sexual assault cases by soldiers, the DOD reported that “Out of those 2,218 cases in which commanders had evidence to take action, 1,446 received action on at least one sexual assault charge…The remaining 772 cases had no evidence of a sexual assault crime” (Ferdinando). The break down of cases going to court is important in showing the difficulty for victims to obtain justice in legal courts from the defendants. This could be a result from a culture that tends to overcomplicate consent and try to find reasons why defendants may have confused a victims behaviors as “consent.”
Slide 12: Weitz
On the topic of sexual assault, I would like discussion groups to go more into depth with the Weitz reading. Despite the environment whether on campuses or in governmental institutions, the United States has created a culture where sexual assault will often try to place any blame on the victim. This is clearly illustrated through the inserted quote on the slide and through many of this past semester’s readings on sexul assault (whether in workplace, jails, campuses, in marriages). Moreover, issues of assault and harassment continue to mainly be ignored even when reports find startling statistics such as harassment being reported at “50% of women in a recent [2007] random national survey of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans” (169). Therefore, I would like discussion groups to think of how damaging the history of the military institution can be today in the era of #MeToo and increasing reportings of sexual assault.
Slide 13: Marine Photo Scandal
Moreover on assault, what were your opinions on the Marine photo scandal? The article was written by the marine who uncovered the story. In addition, I have taken a clip from Youtube about the incident. The three minutes chosen will show two accounts from military women discussing assault and harassment situations. The first is a marine who shares her story of the comments on her picture on the Facebook page while the second gives a recount of a sexual assault that occurred.
Slide 14: Grindlay Article
As this course has seen throughout the semester, most western feminist advocate for easily accessible contraceptives for prospective and sexually active persons. Yet, why is there not as much advocacy for contraceptives for female soldiers? Grindlays article is unique by showing how the “unintended pregnancy is higher in the military, including during deployment, compared to the general U.S. population” which means that the military institutions is in some way failing these women whether in lack of educations or easily-available contraceptives. Moreover, the article is helpful in facilitating conversations about the differences a pregnancy can do to a military family if it happens to an active-duty mother compared to a father.
Slide 15: Williams Article
Moreover on healthcare, The Hill article provides solutions in regards to healthcare for in vitro fertilization, contraceptives, and abortions. Williams illustrates issues with the healthcare with U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs policies that claim to “cover assisted reproductive technology for veterans and spouses soley when a service-connected disability caused the infertility.” Yet, the implementation of the policy did not include same-sex couples and other minority groups in the military. This article is included as it’s topic is healthcare for female soldiers and it can correspond with the study about unwanted pregnancies by expanding on contraceptives and going more in detail about how abortion services can often be denied.
Slide 16
The Time video is included to highlight the issue of abortion procedures for women in the military. The video is outdated and the wanted amendment has been passed but it shows just how recently the government did not want to help military women with abortion, even in cases of rape. Additionally, it draws on the horrifying idea of self-induced abortions which were a common concern that led to major Supreme Court Cases such as Roe V Wade.
Slide 17
This slide provides possible questions for discussion sections. They correspond to the two issues and allow for further in-depth conversations about the importance of contraceptives for women in the military and a reliable environment for sexual assault reportings.
Slide 18
Furthermore, there are many issues within the topic of the military. I included a reading on a gender-neutral army fitness test to drive conversation about if steps like these lessen gender divides or if they are potentially harmful with determining one’s readiness for the military. The following three articles pertain to current issues such as President Trump not wanting allow transgender people in the military. The west point article was included to show that the issue of assault in the military does not begin in training but even in service academies.
Slide 19
Finally, I believe an extra week should be added to the curriculum about issues of gender in the military as this institution has many drawn out parallels to other heavily-male dominated institutions. The military could find issues of intersectionality, health care, sexual assault, violence, mental health and much more. The struggles of women serving overseas are just as important as the struggles of those in the U.S. It is important for injustice anywhere for women to be acknowledged. As seen, anyone can be a victim of sexual assault.
Slide 20
The last slide shows the book option for the week. See annotated bibliography.
Work Cited
Bellafaire, Judith. “America's Military Women—The Journey Continues.” Women's Memorial, Women In Military Service For America Memorial Inc., www.womensmemorial.org/americas-military-women#8.
Browne, Ryan. “Trump Commits to $750 Billion Defense Budget.” CNN, Cable News Network, 9 Dec. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/12/09/politics/trump-mattis-defense-spending/index.html.
Ferdinando, Lisa. “DoD Releases Annual Report on Sexual Assault in Military.” U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, 1 May 2018, dod.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1508127/dod-releases-annual-report-on-sexual-assault-in-military/.
Miklaszewski, Jim, and Halimah Abdullah. “All Combat Roles Now Open to Women.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pentagon-nbc-news-all-combat-roles-now-open-women-n473581.
“American Women in World War II.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 5 Mar. 2010, www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/american-women-in-world-war-ii-1.
“U.S. Defense Spending Compared to Other Countries.” Peter G. Peterson Foundation, 7 May 2018, www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0053_defense-comparison.
“Women in the United States Army.” Army Values, The United States Army, www.army.mil/women/history/.
Annotated Bibliography
Brennan, Thomas James. “Hundreds of Marines Investigated for Sharing Photos of Naked Colleagues.” Reveal, Reveal, 29 Nov. 2018, www.revealnews.org/blog/hundreds-of-marines-investigated-for-sharing-photos-of-naked-colleagues/.
Thomas Brennan, a military veteran and founder of non-profit organization the War House, conducts investigated journalism by releasing information on U.S. Marines using social media to post thousands of unconsented and naked images of female active-duty soldiers and veterans. These photos were very damaging as dozens of women were able to be recognized through the pictures and pictures had many which negatively affected many of these women’s public image. Additionally, the article contains direct quotes from the Facebook group where men would comment derogatory language such as “[he should] take her out back and pound her out” after a secret and unconsented photo was posted of a service member. This article was chosen to show the extent of the issue of hyper-masculinity in the military. It also shows how it has transformed into different forms such as harassment on the internet. Moreover, the article highlights a different but recurring issue of harassment for women in the military.
Chodosh, Sara. “Here's What the U.S. Army's New Gender-Neutral Fitness Test Will Look Like.” Popular Science, 23 July 2018, www.popsci.com/army-updated-physical-fitness-test#page-3.
Sara Chodosh, writer for Popular Science magazine, describes the difference between the old United States army fitness test and the newly designed gender-neutral version. The article comments on how the new fitness requirements correspond more to the attributes the army is looking for beginning with muscular strength., muscular endurance, power, speed, agility, cardiovascular endurance, balance, coordination, reaction time, and flexibility.” Additionally, the new fitness test was designed to be a better predictive measure of the soldiers capabilities as the former Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) was only “40 percent predictive.” This article was chosen to exemplify the new army fitness test and to raise awareness so that there could be discussions of methods to best eliminate any form of gender discrimination. Lastly, the author may have wrote this article with much bias as her support for the new test is clearly shown throughout her writing. This could create potential bias for readers.
Grindlay, Kate, and Daniel Grossman. “Unintended Pregnancy among Active-Duty Women in the United States Military, 2011.” Contraception, vol. 92, no. 6, Dec. 2015, pp. 589–595. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2015.07.015.
Kate Grindlay and Daniel Grossman, Grindley is the director at Ibis Reproductive Health and Grossman is a professor at the University of California San Francisco, examine unwanted pregnancies of active-duty female soldiers and advocate for the importance of contraceptives availability to these. Cross-sectional research was conducted to find rates of unwanted pregnancy in active-duty soldiers. The article was chosen because the researchers found that “Unintended pregnancy is higher in the military, including during deployment, compared to the general U.S. population” which means that the military institutions is in some way failing these women whether in lack of educations or easily-available contraceptives. The article still has drawbacks as the data can not show the greatest factors leading to the rise of unwanted pregnancies in women in the military.
Hegar, Mary Jennings. Shoot Like a Girl. Penguin USA, 2018.
Mary Jennings Hegar, formed U.S. Air Force helicopter pilot and Purple Heart recipient, discusses when she and her crew were shot down in 2009 by the Taliban. Her book highlights women’s powerful role in the military while also exploiting the danger in mission. More importantly, her book describes fellow male-counterparts who did not fully accept the women serving. Moreover, the book discusses her work with the “The Ground Combat Exclusion Policy.” This policy relates back to women not being able to serve in all roles which became promised with legislation in 2016. Hegar was interested in arguing for benefits of women serving openly on the front lines. Thus, the book is a powerful first hand account of what women in the military are capable of as well as the ever present gender discrimination. This book can be critical or bias towards military action as the author is a veteran.
Weitz, Rose. “Vulnerable Warriors: Military Women, Military Culture, and Fear of Rape.” Gender Issues, vol. 32, no. 3, Sept. 2015, pp. 164–183. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s12147-015-9137-2.
Rose Weitz, a Women and Gender Studies professor at Arizona State University and author of several articles, conducts interviews about assault with women in the military to exemplify how military culture can affect the outlook on assaults. Weitz found that half her participants were not “concerned” about assault or measures of prevention. Their perspectives are interesting as it can exemplify that despite common findings, the environment around institutions (eg. military) can create an environment for women where the severity of the issue is greatly ignored for one reason or another. Moreover, the article was helpful by giving both first-hand accounts of assaults from veterans with provided quantitative data to show the severity of the issue of assault in the military. At the same time, this article may not be a reliable representation of assaults in the military as a whole when the participant pool lacks diversity with 17/25 of the women classifying as white non-hispanic.
Williams, Kayla. “Congress Should Enhance Reproductive Health Care for Women Veterans.” TheHill, The Hill, 26 Nov. 2018, thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/418102-congress-should-enhance-reproductive-health-care-for-women-veterans.
Kayla Williams, journalist for American political newspaper The Hill, gives personal opinion on the different ways that women in congress can help women veterans in regards to health care. Her writing is concise and she asks for attention in healthcare with in vitro fertilization, contraceptives, and abortions. Williams illustrates issues with the healthcare with U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs policies that claim to “cover assisted reproductive technology for veterans and spouses soley when a service-connected disability caused the infertility.” Yet, the implementation of the policy did not include same-sex couples and other minority groups in the military. This article is included as it’s topic is healthcare for female soldiers and it can correspond with the study about unwanted pregnancies by expanding on contraceptives and going more in detail about how abortion services can often be denied. It is important to note that the article is biased as it is an opinion piece.