The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

Opinion

Discussion

June 23, 2009

Guest columnist: U.S. military needs men — and women

This is in response to Claudia Owens’ “Women on the front lines” (Globe, June 19).

Throughout Ms. Owens’ letter, she presented the view that women should never be sent to war, and furthermore, should be discharged from our current one. While this is a logically flawed and backward idea, it is one that is undoubtedly shared by many others in our country.

First, Ms. Owens stated: “I think that women should stay home and take care of their homes and children. War is too dangerous for women.” I acknowledge that there are still some women who stay home to take care of their children. I commend them for doing so, because it is truly a 24-hour-a-day job and not always respected as it should be. However, the vast majority of women have entered the work force. According to the United States Department of Labor in 2008, women comprise 46.5 percent of the total U.S. labor force and are projected to account for 47 percent of the labor force in 2016 (http://www.dol.gov/

wb/stats/main.htm). The option to join the military is just one manifestation of women having the right to leave a life of domesticity behind. Ms. Owens also brought up the point that if women get captured, “they can get raped, tortured, and much worse.”

I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but the same can happen to every man who is captured. The women who enter the military are no less resilient and educated about the potential harm they face than the men who do.

Second, Ms. Owens stated that “the front lines are no place for women to be. Even if they are mentally and physically able to do the work, it’s not right.” By whose standard is female military service “not right”? It is not right to kill a man because it is the taking of a life. It is not right to steal because it is the taking of another’s property. However, there is nothing morally wrong with a female entering the military. Furthermore, Ms. Owens’ quote, “Are we still burning our bras and protesting because we can’t get our own ways?” is highly derogatory. Affixing stereotypes to the women’s rights movement only impedes our progress.

Third, Ms. Owens stated: “I wonder how the children feel when Mommy leaves and doesn’t come home, or is a basket case when she does come home.” Not all military women have children, nor have a desire to have children. On the other hand, however, how do you think a child feels when his or her father does not come home? It can be just as traumatic when any person that a child has a strong affection for loses his or her life.

Both Ms. Owens and I can agree that a child needs his mother and father. However, children also need both strong male and female role models. When I was a child, I admired Barbie because she had been all of the things a male could be: an astronaut, a dentist, a paleontologist and even president. But the best role models are those who are not plastic, but living, breathing representations of what a woman should be: strong, empowered and independent, whether she chooses to stay home or enter the work force. This Nov. 11, I encourage you to honor the nearly two million women veterans. Without the service of both males and females in the U.S. military, our country would not be the free nation that it is today.

Courtney Bowling lives in Joplin.

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