Suchergebnisse

THE INTEGRATION OF WOMEN INTO THE AMERICAN MILITARY HAS BEEN A GRADUAL PROCESS PUNCTUATED BY HISTORIC MILESTONE. THE GULF WAR HIGHTLIGHTED THE JOBS WOMEN ALREADY DO IN THE MILITARY AND THE LAWS AND POLICIES WHICH CONTINUED TO CIRCUMSCRIBE THEIR PARTICIPATION. WHILE MANY AMERICANS CONTINUE TO HAVE CONCERNS ABOUT ALLOWING WOMEN IN GROUND COMBAT, THE SERVICES ARE READY TO OPEN COMBAT SHIPS AND AIRCRAFT TO WOMEN. WOMEN CAN DO THESE JOBS, AND AS A SOCIETY, WE SHOULD NOT PROHIBIT THEM FROM DOING SO.

Part of a review symposium on Joshua S. Goldstein, War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa (Cambridge: Cambridge U Press, 2001) contends that Matthew Evangelista & Elisabeth Prugl (both, 2003) missed a key critique of the text's central claims & a key contribution that Goldstein's findings make to advancing equal opportunity in the military. Issue is taken with Goldstein's argument about the relationship between combat motivation & a militarized masculinity on the basis of three related claims: (1) This gendered identity does not contribute to military effectiveness. (2) There is no evidence that this militarized masculinity underpins combat motivation, &, in fact, Goldstein offers substantiation that it is not necessary for military effectiveness. (3) Goldstein also offers evidence that the values & attitudes that support militarized masculinity are as unnecessary & probably dysfunctional as those that propped up racial segregation. In this light, & in claiming that "biology is not destiny," three explanations are posited for the prevalence of male-dominated warfare: (A) Instead of assuming that a culture of militarized masculinity is functional to the military, the role that it plays in excluding women from combat should be examined. (B) Noting that not everything about militarized masculinity is dysfunctional, one should consider for whom it is functional. (C) Women's role in their near-exclusion from combat should not be underestimated. It is concluded that the larger legitimate concerns of Goldstein, Evangelista, & Prugl should not obfuscate War and Gender's capacity to further women's equality in the military. 9 References. J. Zendejas