Gender Satisfaction, Essay Example

Women now take an active role in all branches of the armed services. Indeed this has seen women taking up some of the most senior appointments in the services, for example: the President nominated Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody of the Army for appointment to the grade of general and assignment as commander, Army Material Command”. There were certain old fashioned views that women should not participate in the armed forces and particularly alongside combat male soldiers, a view that is still upheld in certain military areas today. This has some credence particularly from a psychological perspective with male combat soldiers.

Prejudice was equally made against gay service personnel on the grounds of being unsuitable and impacting morale of other servicemen. Even those that suffered the abuse felt there was a glass ceiling ion terms of career progression in the services. Women have been in the armed services for a long time serving as nurses and medical personnel. The roles have now expanded and they are to be seen along with their male counterparts serving on warships, in combat roles, flying helicopters and participating in a wide range of other military service operations.

In the United States Women account for around 20% of the Military personnel. In the recent incursion into Iraq women played a vital role in helping with convoys and security duties and these were instrumental in helping with the overall operations. Women have also been operating as machine gunners on the motorized patrol Humvees that are used in Iraq. This came as a shock to the Iraqi civilians and military alike but they quickly became accustomed to the idea. Israel is another country where women take an active part in combat operational roles as soldiers alongside men. Female soldiers have been given the responsibility of manning watchtowers that surround Gaza which are manned machine gun posts. There still remain reports of sexual harassment of women in the armed services. The situation however seems to be changing and conditions improving according to recent studies in 2008. The future trend however points to more integration between male and female roles in both the commercial and military world.