A revolution is taking place in the air force: ten years after the IAF was forced to open the doors to its prestigious training course to women, the air force is showing initiative and is showing off a unique combat squadron that composed solely by women.
In the new squadron, all positions are staffed by members of the fairer sex: from the combat pilot to the operations officer, training officer, air traffic control sergeant right down to the ground technician.
The female revolution should be credited to IAF Commander, Major General Eliezar Shkedi. Upon entering his position, Shkedi ordered the maximization of female potential in the air force.
One of the issues western armies grapple with is the role women. In the 20th century women have served in support roles in medical care, administration, and logistics. With the rise of feminism there has been a growing calling for women to take a much more active role in the military with varying degrees of success. For the sake of attracting more women to military life and making the face of the modern fighting force conform to PC thought, the military has chosen to lower the physical standards for female recruits. The problem with lowering the bar to admit more women is that is disbars them from taking more pro-active roles and in some cases limits their opportunities to advance.
The common reasons given for denying these opportunities to women is the potential to lower moral with increase fraternization, the potential that male soldiers would put the safety of their female comrades before the objectives of the mission, and the general unfitness of females to the demands required to do the task effectively. Finally, the “special” risk of rape and sexual torture that a female soldier may have to endure.
The Israeli’s used women in combat roles in the 1948 War of Independence with varying degrees of success. After the State was firmly established (at least in Israeli eyes) women were no longer used in active combat. To my own knowledge the only female Israeli soldiers who have been in active combat are women serving in the Border Patrol units. There was one case study from the mid-90’s (I am going from memory here) where the Israeli’s tried to train women for active roles in tank units. Again, the problem was one of upper body strength. Women were not able to meet the same standards as men and therefore could not be effectively utilized in that capacity without a complete retraining program modified for their physical limitations (increased weight training coupled with longer training periods than men). It was not cost or time efficient, and as far as I aware it was never attempted again.
Fraternization continues to be an ongoing concern. It is interesting to note that the Israeli’s have attempted to get around that by a separation the sexes. What degree of success the Israelis will have with this separation policy we will have to wait to see.
The issue of rape and sexual torture I have always felt to be a bit of a misnomer. Depending on the cultural motif of the nation you are fighting, captured male soldiers are as just as much risk for rape and sexual torture as female soldiers.
I am of a divided mind on role of women in the military. Certainly, it is the height of hypocrisy to have one standard for women and another for men just to be able to say that the military is an equal opportunity employer. Soldiers fight wars and subject themselves to great harm personal harm on the behalf of the nation. They deserve better than. To deny woman the right to serve their country is equally wrong. Historically, there have been many woman warriors of note, though few in number.
Traditionally we have socialized our males to be the natural protectors of women and children. I can’t help feeling that if we were to de-socialize our male soldiers in order to integrate female combat soldiers effectively we would be doing ourselves and our men a disservice, something valuable could indeed be lost. Perhaps the only solution is to implement the same standard for men and women and let the women who are so inclined prove they are indeed capable of reaching pass the bar.
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