Again though, like the black soldiers before them, women are now allowed fully into the military, but in only in about half of the positions that men are. Why is it that no combat positions are open to women? Why hasn't the government learned from it's past that it doesn't mater what race, religion, or sex a person is it, only how well that person can perform their job?.
Although it seems obvious, and only a natural progression for women to serve in combat, others don't. They have many reasons to argue against it in fact. They argue that women simply don't fit in on the front lines for many reasons. It's believed that women will ruin the military cohesion of a male combat unit, and therefore endanger all lives involved. They also believe that feminine hygiene is a hindrance because of women's specific anatomy, infections and complications could occur in the field because of poor hygiene conditions. Also, because feminine supplies such as sanitary napkins are not always available in the field, and sometimes privacy just isn't an option, and that would make both the women and men uncomfortable.
The biggest argument against women serving in combat though, is that women naturally aren't suited for combat because: they are women are weaker then men, being on the front lines, they risk capture and aren't trained to handle torture, and because men can't handle the sight of women being killed and will often risk themselves to save a women even when the odds are highly unfavorable. One of the social reasons is that US citizens are not ready to see women come home in body bags, or hear about them being tortured and raped as POW's.
Although some of these arguments make sense and actually have a base, they are all outdated and under-researched. They believe that women would ruin military cohesion of fighting units, but Carol Barkalow stated, .
"While I was in the desert, I witnessed the same type of relationship forming between men and women as has traditionally been described as occurring among men: mutual respect and caring borne out of enduring the same dangers and the same hardships.
