Letters to the Editor
Parson Jim
Published Letters: 576 Editor's Choice: 7
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MerelyMortalMale
[Read the article: Roundup: Veiling, pseudo-science and more!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Well put.
Oh, and for you other posters, the majority of enlisted women do not favor serving in combat on par with male soldiers.
From the Center for Combat Readiness website:
"ENLISTED WOMEN OPPOSED TO COMBAT ASSIGNMENTS
9/3/2003 6:27:00 PM
Army Stops Asking Questions About Land Combat
Feminist activists and their friends in the media keep insisting that military women strongly desire the “opportunity” to serve in land combat units. But is that true? Opinion surveys done by the Army indicate that the majority of military women are strongly opposed to combat assignments—especially if it means being forced into combat on an “equal” basis with men.
According to the General Accounting Office (GAO), quoting a study done by the Rand Corporation in 1998, only 10% of female privates and corporals agreed that “women should be treated exactly like men and serve in the combat arms just like men.” [1]
The Army Research Institute (ARI), in a series of surveys since 1993, also found that most military women want nothing to do with combat assignments. In 2001, for example, Question #60 in the ARI “Sample Survey of Military Personnel” asked military people whether women should be assigned to direct ground combat (DGC), which was defined as” engaging an enemy on the ground with individual or crew-served weapons, while being exposed to hostile fire and to a high probability of direct physical contact with the hostile force’s personnel.” [2]
ARI asked whether current policy “should be changed so that females can also be ‘involuntarily assigned’ [to combat units]” [3] The results, which should have given the Army pause, indicated that only one-tenth of enlisted women (10%) wanted the Army to force female soldiers into combat units on an involuntary basis. The figure for enlisted men—many of whom were found in a more detailed independent survey to be in favor of women in combat for vindictive reasons—was 23%. [4] (The ARI bar graph is published on p. 1 of CMR Notes, July 2003, which can be accessed by use of passwords issued to CMR members, media, and researchers on request.)
A bar graph slide prepared by ARI further indicated that among enlisted personnel, low percentages in favor of women in combat on the same basis as men “had remained stable since the fall of 1993.” Among female and male officers, levels of support—19% and 20%, respectively—were higher but far less than a majority. [5] "