To the Editor:
In “Living and Fighting Alongside Men, and Fitting In,” you concluded that today’s military women “are confident young women who have not had to fight the same gender battles their predecessors in uniform did.”
Certainly, today’s military women are confident and capable. But when I went through boot camp for the research component of my doctoral dissertation last year, I found that our struggles for acceptance, while potentially different, are as challenging as our predecessors’.
The trouble came not only through sexual harassment or assault, but also because gender barriers play out in every aspect of daily life, from squad training exercises and tactical maneuvers to eating, sleeping and personal hygiene.
Uniforms, for example, are not designed for the female form and thus are often too big and quite cumbersome, so that those women who wear their uniforms as is get punished for their sloppy appearance while those who find ways to tailor them get sanctioned for their so-called provocative appearance.
Food in military life is another double bind for women. During training and deployment the meals served are very high in calories, which women’s bodies often process differently from men’s. Consequently, those women who eat as often and as much as their male peers often gain weight, causing them trouble based on size regulations, while those who restrict their caloric intake (or try to focus on healthy options) are often yelled at for “dieting,” a practice not allowed during military training.
The expansion of opportunities for women in the military, while important, does not come close to making the military gender-neutral.
Stacie R. Furia
Santa Barbara, Calif., Aug. 18, 2009
The writer is an assistant professor of sociology and social justice at Northland College.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 