Women In The Military Today vs. Back Then: What's Different

1) "Marine Corps to Open Officer Infantry School to Women"


Let's talk about what women are doing in the military today. Did they differ from back then? How so? These are questions everyone knows the answer to. Jobs in the military today are much more open to women back then. But what's the time jump? Why are women important in training today? Do women have to met the same physical training stand as men?

1) "The Marines have made little progress in integrating women into jobs they already qualify for, and the purpose of a proposed physical screening test is questionable since it focuses on strength-based measures and not skills actually needed for the work, according to Greg Jacob, a former Marine and policy director of the Service Women’s Action Network.

The Marines’ plan calls for testing women to see if they can deadlift 135 pounds, bench 115 pounds, carry 95 pounds for 50 meters while wearing full combat gear, load a 120mm tank round and scale a 7-foot wall. But these skills might not be needed, Jacob said.

“It’s not looking at the jobs,” Jacob said at a Wednesday briefing on Capitol Hill. “If you want a job in the artillery, you have to pick up the artillery shell and shove it into the breach of the gun. Is this proxy test going to evaluate that? We don’t know. ... It’s a plan, but you’re not really sure what it’s explaining or what it’s doing.”

Jacob also questioned whether the current standards are gender-neutral."

No matter what job someone does, everyone will always have struggles they'll have to face. But times have changed for the better for women in the military. Jobs are opening up more as well and other things. 

2) "Women in the Civil War" 

What was the Civil War like for women in the United State? It's much different than the military today. Back then, it seemed as if women were sneaking in to fight. 

2) "More than 400 women disguised themselves as men and fought in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War."

That doesn't seem like very much compared to the size of the Union and Confederate Army. But women didn't just fight as soldiers. There were other things they did, aiding men around the battlefields. 

2) Nearly 20,000 women worked more directly for the Union war effort. Working-class white women and free and enslaved African-American women worked as laundresses, cooks and “matrons,” and some 3,000 middle-class white women worked as nurses. The activist Dorothea Dix, the superintendent of Army nurses, put out a call for responsible, maternal volunteers who would not distract the troops or behave in unseemly or unfeminine ways: Dix insisted that her nurses be “past 30 years of age, healthy, plain almost to repulsion in dress and devoid of personal attractions.” (One of the most famous of these Union nurses was the writer Louisa May Alcott.)

Army nurses traveled from hospital to hospital, providing “humane and efficient care for wounded, sick and dying soldiers.” They also acted as mothers and housekeepers–“havens in a heartless world”–for the soldiers under their care.

3) "Women in the First World War"

Women were an aid one way or another in every war. In the First World War, some women aided as nurses and others in many jobs. 

3) "In general, women did very well, surprising men with their ability to undertake heavy work and with their efficiency.  By the middle of the war they were already regarded as a force to be proud of, part of the glory of Britain.  However, their entrance into the workforce was initially greeted with hostility for the usual sexist reasons and also because male workers worried that women's willingness to work for lower wages would put them out of work."

Women were important in every way. They worked hard for men at war so the economy would't be at stake. Bombs were made in factories to help as well as other difficult jobs. They were being the back bone to the country to help. Even though they had their struggles, without a woman's help, the war would be hopeless.

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4) "Army nurses in Vietnam cared for the civilian population as well as military"

Vietnam was another dreadful war to suffer through. Men with off with women wishing them luck as well and love letters being exchanged time to time. But every war is painful and with soldiers, nurses, cooks, and many others, how could the war possibly be beat from within? How did women play a role here?

4) "As male casualties mounted and demands to free servicemen for combat grew, the presence of nurses and other servicewomen increased in Southeast Asia. By the time American troops withdrew from Vietnam, more than 7,500 women had served. Almost 6,000 of these women were nurses and medical specialists. Seven Army nurses and one Air Force nurse died in Vietnam."

Women were not only recorded to be nurses, but in combat as well. Women were important to every war for aiding in help and in today's military, still play an important role.

Sources: 1) "Military's Progress on Women in Combat Criticized." Military.com.Military Advantage, C.J. Len. Web. 20 Mar. 2015. http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/01/31/militarys-progress-on-women-in-combat-criticized.html              2) "Women in the Civil War." History.com. A&E Television Networks,LLC. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.   http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/women-in-the-civil-war     3) "Firstworldwar.com." First World War.com. 2009., Sara Martin. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.  http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/womenww1_four.htm   4)  "Women in the US Military - the Vietnam Era." Women in the US Military - the Vietnam Era. 2015., History and Collections. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.  http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/rr/s01/cw/students/leeann/historyandcollections/history/lrnmrevietnam.htm