Gender Equality in the Military
Serving in the armed forces of one's country can certainly be viewed as a patriotic duty in protection of all that the population of the country holds near and dear. And in that protection mode the country's dearest resources, its young men and women, are sent far afield to fight in battles not of their making but resulting from the decisions made by those in whom the country places their trust.Those serving in the armed forces learn to rely upon one another, to view their comrades as their nearest and dearest for it is upon the trust with which each holds the other that they are able to withstand the privations of the theatres of war, the fear that comes with facing an enemy determined to kill before being killed, to offer that added thrust of resolve to face what will come, beside the soldiers whose faces have become as familiar as those of their families.
For their "battle buddies" in whose capable hands they place their very safety, and for whose safety they themselves take responsibility, each soldier is prepared to risk life and limb. Comradeship between soldiers fighting together for their country, for an ideal that reflects the values that all hold dear, is what maintains order and sanity in the midst of misery and deprivation. Men supporting the needs and emotions of other men.
And then? Then, of course, women who have long since entered military life as support personnel and combatants alongside males. And suddenly the terrifically vital support system of men-plus-men becomes distorted. Then the situation becomes differentiated and horrible beyond imagination for the women who seek to serve alongside men in the armed services of their country. Women, uniformed or not, become prey.
Fighting has always been a man's work. Women have always been susceptible to rape during war; women civilians cringing, despairing, pleading - become pillage-and-loot. The casualties of men's super-charged hormones, assuaging their fears, their anger, their misery and their blame - war is a brutalizing experience for everyone. Civility, generosity of spirit, kindness and empathy slowly dissipate leaving a hollow shell of revenge. And women are always so handily available.
All the more so now that they have joined active service in the armed forces. Not merely ancillary presence as medical personnel and administrative clerks and cooks and cleaners, but combat-ready soldiers. In Iraq, so many female soldiers have been raped that they fear the need to visit latrines or showers when night falls. In 2003 three female soldiers died of dehydration in Iraq. They had refused to take liquids late in the day for fear of having to visit the latrines at night, leaving themselves vulnerable to rape.
Although official Pentagon has a prohibition on women serving in ground combat roles the very nature of the war is such that there are no safe zones, no places to hide from incoming mortars or roadside or car bombs. Women are sent home with amputated limbs, severely mutilating wounds, and trauma. Despite which their male counterparts consider their presence as trifling, there to be used as sex toys. From ranking superiors to newly enlisted soldiers, males consider their female counterparts fair game.
When women, during the course of their duties, throughout the course of a normal day's activities, are not being subjected to direct assaults, they are continually being harassed in the most sexually graphic language, suggestions and gestures. So much for military comradeship and respect for women in the military. Fully 71% of women said they were sexually assaulted or raped while in the military in a 2003 U.S. survey.
One soldier, one of 19 women in a 160-troop unit said the men imported porn, talked such filth at the women all the time that she became worn down. "We shouldn't have to think every day, 'How am I going to go out and there and deal with being harassed?'" she said. She recounted that when she was training in Nicaragua before deployment to Iraq "I was sexually assaulted by a superior officer when I was 19, but I didn't know where to turn, so I never reported it."
The U.S. Department of Defense has a website that encourages women to report sexual harassment of any kind. Women can report such incidents and ask that their identities not be revealed, but with anonymity no prosecution can take place. Moreover military platoons are such that women face resentment and blame from other soldiers if they report assaults; even to risking being punished by her assailant if he also happens to be her superior.
What has also been revealed is that the platoon takes its message about acceptable behaviours from its commanding officer. If a commander lets it be known with no uncertainty that he will not tolerate mistreatment of women it simply doesn't occur. Where a commander will not permit assaults on women soldiers the company treats the women among them with respect.
Conversely, when "command rape" occurs where commanders feel it is perfectly acceptable to harass female soldiers, the soldiers, trained to follow the lead of their commanders, act on the basis of allowable harassment. Most commanders dismiss complaints from women soldiers out of hand. A 2003 study found that nearly five thousand accused military sex offenders had avoided prosecution since 1992.
Col. Janis Karpinski, demoted from brigadier general for her role as commander of Abu Ghraib prison, the highest-ranking official to lose her job over the torture controversy, claims to have been scapegoated. She has since become an outspoken advocate for women in the military, criticizing the lack of attention by her country's armed forces to this disgrace.
The Army, happy enough to have women in the military at a time of need where male enlistees are so sparse that one in ten men are having criminal convictions overlooked at enlistment, accuses Col. Karpinski of sour grapes.
Over 160,500 American female soldiers have served in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East since the war began in 2003, so one in seven soldiers is female. At least 450 women have been wounded in Iraq; 71 have lost their lives.
Information from an article which appeared in Salon, by Helen Benedict.
Labels: Human Fallibility
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, March 18, 2007
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