Gender and General Martin Dempsey Essay

Newt Gingrich’s comments regarding women in the military are sexist, discriminatory and hold no statistical or scientific merit. In the article, he says, “ males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes.” The full quote that accompanied this statement insinuates that women are more patient and less aggressive than the adrenaline driven ‘naturally’ aggressive man. Gingrich goes further in his generalizations and biases that women are unfit for combat, because they cannot remain in a ditch for 30 days because men and women are biologically and physically different. He assumes the majority of women are better fit to sit at a desk, than being an active participant in the front lines of war. Gingrich states one fact, that men do have more upper body strength than women, which is also stated in the article, “Gender and War” (p.24), because it is a “rare” case, he doesn’t acknowledge the possibility that women are capable of combat. Newt Gingrich’s comments differ from the article “Gender and War” in that “Gender and War” took a more defensive stand on women’s rights in combat, which provided pros and cons that were accompanied by statistics, arguments and testimonies. Gingrich’s article provided his sole view on combat that was filled with assumptions, generalizations and sexism. ‘A woman being brutally killed alongside men is a long-awaited feminist dream of equality.’ (p.116) This statement is satirical, but in the battle of equality for women this is a logical statement. In the “Women in combat: Good to go if they meet standards” article General Martin Dempsey said, “When you have one part of the population that is designated as warriors and another part that’s designated as something else, I think that disparity begins to establish a psychology that in some case led to that environment…I have to believe, the more we can treat people equally, the more likely they are to treat each other equally.” A feminist’s dream is equality. Equality means that women should be allowed to fight next to their male counterparts in combat. While I agree that women should be allowed to fight on the front lines, I do feel like they should be tested and well equipped for the position. The idea that women cannot fight in combat has been established since the beginning of time. It has been passed down from generation to generation, it has been ingrained in society, that there is a definite contrast between men and women physically, mentally and emotionally. However, as Dempsey stated, if we change the psychology of the established dogma, I believe it would lead to a change in our society on our views of women in combat. If we remain devoted to an ideology without allowing it to be challenged that is not fair to women and we would be doing our society a disservice, especially based upon our principles such as: equality, pursuit of happiness and liberty (Merriam-Webster 1b. freedom of physical restraint). The psychological perspectives on gender roles in

Show More

Related Documents: Gender and General Martin Dempsey Essay

Military Allow Women In Combat