Poll: - Women In The Military -

[Marine Mike]

Kind of like what others said before, if there are women willing to die for their country, why not let them join the military?

Just curious, but how do women get raped in the military? I suppose it would be easy enough if both the men and women slept in the same barracks but how does it still happen if they are kept in seperate bunk houses?

The way our barracks worked it was up to 3 Marines to a room, a room is either all male or all female. As for the rape bit, not much... Think of the complete lack of privacy and incredibly close proximity to decent human beings who would immediately end your life upon finding out what you did.

 

[Paksenarrion]

Add one more to your list, OP. Women can't piss standing up.

Guess men shit standing up too?

I've seen it. It's not pretty.

And any experienced grunt standing up to take a leak is just asking to be sniped. You learn to just go in whatever position you're currently in.

ie: lying in a prone position, in the woods, in the middle of a tsunami

 

[Shock and Awe]

As I stated in another thread yes they should be allowed in the military in all roles except those in which the many factors of having women in the unit are liabilities.

 

[Fox242]

Damn straight women should be allowed to fight. I don't buy the reasoning that women are kept from frontline duty simply because they may be subject to rape if captured; that's a weak excuse. Women have proven to be very successful fighters throughout history (especially if they are used as snipers). They should be given a chance to prove themselves in this day and age. Besides, think of the psychological impact it would have on the Islamo-Fascists if they knew they were being mown down by women, whom they consider to be inferior.

 

[Motti]

I'm fine with women in the military, but not in combat roles and DEFINITELY not in infantry units. As many other posters have pointed out, having women in a combat situation would reduce the effectiveness of the other men in the unit. I won't say women are physically weaker than men, because I know some women stronger than me, but there would be a massive psychological effect on the men in their unit. If people forget their training because a woman is wounded and they can't ignore their instincts anymore they are most likely going to become casualties themselves.

tl;dr: people shouldn't have to die for political correctness.

 

[WrcklessIntent]

I vote no that they should not be allowed to have combat roles. Not because i'm sexist its actually the exact opposite of that. To face facts its kind've male nature to fight with one another and be the alpha male and its also nature( I think atleast) that we try to protect all the females. In the middle of combat we would try to protect them so in the way i look at it almost a secruity risk to the mission at hand and a distraction.
EDIT: Also look at it this way. If it was an all out war (God forbid) we do need to have people at home working in factories keeping the country going. This is going to sound completly sexist but once again not trying to be. If its a long enough war it could drag out through 2 generations meaning we need women at home doing only what women can do and that give us more life.

 

[Infernai]

While im a pseudo-pacifist by nature, if someone wants to join the military i say let them. Regardless of gender, sexual orientation, creed or race.

 

[Veylon]

All the arguments against women soldiers were once used against black soldiers:

-They aren't as physically capable
-They are cowardly or otherwise psychologically unfit for the 'tough stuff'
-They don't have the mental capacity
And if all else fails...
-They reduce morale because regular white males can't focus

Why, oh why, are we recycling these arguments of the past? I just wonder why they don't segregate the soldiers by gender the way blacks were by race so that we can see that, indeed, women are effective and can be integrated back in again.

 

[Flight]

I'm all for women in the military. A soldier is a soldier; it doesn't (or at least it shouldn't) matter what their gender is. Every soldier knows the risks of their job, at least in theory.

 

[JWAN]

If women want to fight, and possibly die, for their country, I say let them enlist. Why shouldn't they be allowed to join?

They are allowed to join, the question is about combat roles and other opportunities that are male-only areas. Such as front line infantry.

It was rhetorical. I believe they should be allowed to be there if they so choose, or get assigned to it.

I agree but they should go through the exact same training as their male counterparts.

 

[krseyffert]

In my opinion, if a woman wishes to enlist, they should be allowed to, and be treated as any male soldier would, however if it should come to times of war, an conscriptions are invoked, they should not be allowed to conscript women, but may enlist them if they volunteered

 

[Xan Krieger]

The problem with female soldiers is seperate bathrooms, seperate barracks, seperate showers, it's so much easier when everyone can use the same facilities.

 

[WhiteTiger225]

It is pretty pathetic discussions like these exist in this day and age.

 

[WhiteTiger225]

The problem with female soldiers is seperate bathrooms, seperate barracks, seperate showers, it's so much easier when everyone can use the same facilities.

Seperate showers? I don't think so.

You act like soldiers are dumb highschool kids in gym class. When you are being shot at, or in a place where you could be shot at. the human mentality matures much faster then you think. Watch Starship Troopers shower scene for what I mean. There might be general teasing occasionally, but in the end you are a trained soldier, NOT a high school kid on a field trip.

 

[Kaymish]

well this seams to be an issue in the us army only i am female i was a pilot and then was promoted up to SQN Leader before i retired

one of my girlfriends is a grunt in the air police which is like the marines except we throw them out of aircraft instead of off boats and is part of the airforce and not the navy

we both fought in east Timor and never had a problem with sharing what amounted to barracks facilities there

additionally i had dealings with female army grunts and officers and there was never a problem there when i was organising supply but the army digs holes to sleep in so they have no difficulty anyway

and tankies tend to be women over men because women can work better in a tank because we are smaller and more able to deal with problems where small hands are required like in a metal coffin AKA tank

 

[asinann]

I'd even go so far as to make them register for selective service in the US just like the males.

 

[merc hunter]

Women should only be allowed in the military if their uniforms are designed by fantasy artists.

But seriously, gender is irrelevant until it isn't. Men actually are physically superior to women and the "pain threshold/tolerance" bit is an old wive's feminist's tale with no real science behind it. Putting women in sneaky/stealthy or leadership/technical/vehicular roles (assuming they've already shown aptitude on an individual basis) is quite fitting, but they just can't compete with men in "grunt" roles, and any woman (notice how you can't refer to someone by their gender without sound sexist?) who wants to be in "grunt" roles suffers from some sort of mental damage.

In all fairness thats not true for all women with the "grunt" role, the New Zealand Army has a fairly high number of female soldiers in general and quite a few of them are riflemem (inappropriate name) and some of them would be bigger than me, im 5'11 and about 80 kgs, they are by no means inferior in the "grunt" role. Also I aim to be in a "grunt" role in 6 months time and I dont have mental problems, granted New Zealand isnt fighting in Iraq so there isnt too much danger but it doesnt mean I have Mental problems.

 

[WolfThomas]

I'm not adverse to women in combat roles, however I'm opposed to any lowering of the standards, for women.

I have a mate who is a former infantryman and he is staunchly opposed to women in the infantry, not because he doesn't think there are women out there who can do it, but because there's significantly more men for every woman who can.

You see the way he explained it was his training you might have 100 male grunts and half would drop out because it was to hard or worse because of injuries and accidents, with women you might have 100 female grunts and only 20 might be physically fit enough to pass and persist with the training.

Now these women would make great soldiers, but it's the other 80 that's the problem. You suddenly have the PR nightmare of a lot of women regularly being injured or heavens forbid killed (it still happens). So everyone in the army doesn't care because they understand how difficult the training is, but the public can't stand the idea of women being hurt (see the whole Jessica Lynch debacle), so they complain and politicians influence the military and the standards get lowered for women. Suddenly you have female soldiers who are not necessarily up to the same grueling level of professionalism as the male soldiers and lives are endangered in an actual warzone.

This isn't exaggeration, in the Australian army women have a maximum weight of gear (hypothetically lets say 90% of normal, not sure the exact figure) they can carry and if there's a bunch of them in a section, the men have to carry the additional weight on top of their already heavier gear. Women usually aren't expected to deal with the MAG58, which weighs nearly 12kilos empty, however in a rifle section every man must be ready to use it if the situation calls for it (gunner's injured or dead).

The way I see is both women and men should be comprehensively tested and examined medically, for both physical and mental condition before being allowed to train or fight in a combat role. If it means 100 men to every one woman so be it.

Also what needs to be dealt with is the philosophy around women, I've heard escapists on this site say things like "women would be good in the army, I'd go out of my way to save a chick", that's WRONG, you should go out of your way to save anyone in your section or platoon, male or female, they're a soldier first and your comrade, before being woman.