Women are invading a man’s military, or at least that’s the perception you’ll get if you read some online comments on news articles and Facebook posts regarding DOD’s decision to allow women to serve in all combat roles.
The decision has been made: Women will be able to be Army Rangers or Navy SEALS if they can pass the same standards as their male counterparts.
Women have never been drafted in the U.S. military because they couldn’t serve in combat. Will that change in the future?
But like all great decisions in our military’s history (think President Harry Truman’s order of racial integration in the 1940s or the more recent elimination of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy regarding homosexuality), the policy decision is only the first step. The fallout of these policies and how they will be applied are equally as historic, yet they lack headline appeal.
Let’s examine the current issue—women in the military.
Since women will soon be able to serve in all aspects of the military, is it time for women to be required to register for the draft? Is the act of requiring 18-year-old women to register with Selective Service the final step in gender integration of the U.S. military?
One New Jersey teen thinks so. A class-action lawsuit filed by a 17-year-old through her mother asserts that the Military Selective Service Act violates the civil rights of women aged 18 to 25 by making them ineligible to sign up for the draft registry.
“With both males and females available for such roles today, the two sexes are now similarly situated for draft registration purposes and there is no legitimate reason for the government to discriminate against the female class, so equal protection applies,” says the complaint, cited by Courthouse News. “Further, with both males and females available for such combat roles, there is no reasonable basis for infringing the associational interests of the female class by preventing them from registering.”
In this class-action lawsuit, the young woman reports that she tried to register for the draft on the Selective Service website, only to be rejected when she checked the “female” option. Under current law, only males are required to register for the draft.
Here’s my favorite line in the lawsuit:
If the two sexes can fight and die together, they can register together; if not, then no one should have to register.
This lawsuit isn’t the first of its kind.
In 1981, the Supreme Court reversed a U.S. District Court’s decision that the Military Selective Service Act’s gender-based discrimination violated the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment (Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57).
Since that decision the idea to include women in the draft has been discussed several times, but Congress hasn’t amended the Selective Service law to include women.
The reason? Because women weren’t allow to serve in combat they shouldn’t be required to register for the draft.
But that argument has been flipped on its head since former Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta’s announcement that DOD would end the direct ground combat exclusion rule for female service members.
Is the act of requiring 18-year-old women to register with Selective Service the final step in gender integration of the U.S. military?
We know that while the United States has the ability to draft for military service, we don’t use the draft unless we have to and future presidents will be very reluctant to initiate a draft with or without women registered in it. We are proud of our all-volunteer force. But in a worst-case scenario shouldn’t we consider having women registered for the draft?
I believe this requirement will be the last step in gender integration for the U.S. military. Once women are required to register with the draft, women will finally be viewed as equals both on and off the battlefield.
If they expect to get the equal treatment they desire, they should also be responsible for the same risks. They should be required to register for the draft.
No
Having served almost 28 years including a year in Vietnam and a year in Thailand during the Vietnam War, I worked with many women that were, in my opinion, as capable as men doing their jobs. These were non combat jobs, but stressful, tiring, and not too often receiving “atta girls” for a job well done, by higher ups. Israel requires everyone, including to serve in the military, and they’ve had no problems. During the Vietnam War I was a Military Training Instructor at Lackland AFB., for 6 years (4, then 2). The draft was still in effect, and as we we were short of instructors, some men were involuntarily cross trained into the MTI field. Some liked it and did a good job; some hated it and did as little as possible, and were some of the worst MTI’s to maltreat trainees. When I returned from Thailand to MTI duty (I really enjoyed the job) as a MSgt, E7, I was assigned as an MTI supervisor. Due to shortage of males in the field, USAF and Basic Military Training (BMT) decided to test women training men to see if it would work. I was one of the supervisors asked to accept 2 female MTI’s for the test program. I accepted (I don’t remember if I had a choice) and briefed all my MTI’s on the program. The feelings were about half and half, some of the most opposed brought up all sorts of reasons it would not work. I was able to respond why, in my opinion, they were wrong, and that regardless, we would accept and work with these two. Obviously, I didn’t pair them with the most anti of the MTI’s as I knew they wouldn’t get a fair shake. One of the females was superb doing the job, and the other had some problems, but I kept her on until the test ended. I recommended the one be kept on to train males and recommended the other continue to train females. None of my comments has to do with combat, obviously. But, as far as women being able to do most, if not all jobs in the military, I see why not. There are males that enlist and can’t do the job so they are either cross trained, or discharged. So I’m in favor of all men and women registering for the draft. We haven’t drafted anyone since the Vietnam War, and women have served admirably in every branch of our military. No doubt, if the military begins drafting people if serious wars break out, there would be female “draft dodgers” as there have been males. One thing for certain, in the military, the women get paid the same as men, regardless. And they advance in ranks equally as men, as far as I know. So I say, bring it on!
Yes. Finally equal under the law,
Women in the military as support personnel has been beneficial for as long as we have had a military.
However, women in combat arms is total non-sense. Mother nature distributed a women’s strength from the waist down and a man’s from the waist up. To even discuss this issue is assine. Women in in the draft, utter non-sense.
Since the first days of our country’s requirement for males to register, I’ve known that gender discrimination was being applied. Combat roles or not, if we’re going to draft our young people for military service, it should include both genders. How can our culture demand equality yet accept that we exclude the female? Funny how our own government can openly discriminate yet label it as something else.
While women are not REQUIRED to register for the draft, I think it is ridiculous that we would not be able to register should we want. As a 20 year veteran of the military, I can think of no reason why women shouldn’t be allowed to register for the draft now, if they so choose. I also think that as we REQUIRE males to register with the Selective Service, this needs to change to require ALL US CITIZENS to register, regardless of their gender.
Absolutely not!
I used to think it was a good idea, but understanding the “culture” of the worth of females, i think our male soldiers would have to be concerned even moreso, should a female fellow soldier be captured and tortured – not diminishing the worth of a males’s life….to be politically incorrect -and who cares in this arena anyway; women seem to be easily dispensible.
This enemy already disdains women who think they have any rights. They are mindless hate machines who make zombies pale in comparison.
I know this may sound rediculous, but we’ve got some prisons with able bodied. Patriots who may consider it an honor to exhonerate themselves by defending their country, if given a choice to fight against world terror…they’re still Americans.
Simple, no brainer…I vote Yes! Why not? This is 2015, not 1915!!
Lets get real. We all know that male and female are not the same. Even some males should not serve in combat.. Yes, I think females should be allowed to serve in combat like most of the other countries allow and allow/make them sign up for the draft but I also believe that a female should make that decision herself. Have on the draft card with the gender line along with a “yes/no I would or would not like to serve in a combat unit if qualified, (not for pregnant, Mothers and other exceptions as specified). I have read many news accounts where a female was capable and did kill males and I am sure they could do it in combat also. I sure hope our outstanding leaders are knowledgeable enough to be capable of making some sort of decision.