Essay on feministic views and military influence in "Women Warriors" excerpted from The Women and War Reader

In the essay, “Women Warriors”, excerpted from, The Women and War Reader, Francine D’Amico writes about women in the military and the different views of feminists groups. I strongly disagree with the author and the idea that she states. Throughout the excerpt she certainly describes her idea of women being unequal to men, masculine conforming ideas addressed to women, and the combat exclusion at that time. These feelings are, without a doubt, influenced by that specific time period (1998), but I feel that they are still extremely sexist, misinformed, and anti-military.

The first reason for her conforming women ideas are that she sees that patriarchal influence to be strong and forced on the female gender in the military. She shows support for this when she states, “Military service constitutes a quintessentially male activity, a confirmation of masculinity, a proof of manhood.” The author also writes, “The military milieu celebrates and privileges maleness.

Thurgood Marshall, appointed by Kennedy to the Uni...

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For male recruits, it also includes a process of masculinization where female and feminine are defined as ‘other’ and ‘unworthy.’” She further goes on to bash the policies and standards that the military have for the training and job specialties dealing with gender.

My previous and current military experiences as a Military Policeman do not support male conforming beliefs. I must state that generally speaking the military is male dominated, but it has many occupations that are non-biased in gender. Military Police Corps is one job that is not gender biased. The training and special sections that are included in the Military Police Corps are not gender discriminate. For example, one of our main missions is road patrols, whichPuckett 2involve male and female individuals to carry a weapon and other non-lethal means of force. This fact denies the claim that Francine D’Amico made, “Even in militaries where...