L.W.Higgins High School

Believe in Equal Rights for All

The reality is that there is absolutely no intelligent, logical, sensible reason for women not to be in combat roles with the technological style of warfare that abounds today.

WOMEN IN THE MILITARY

WHEREAS, during the Equal Rights Amendment fight, our opposition effectively fanned the flames of fear that women would be drafted and thrown into foxholes in some strange and distant country; and
WHEREAS, with women soldiers playing a more significant role in the Persian Gulf than ever before in our military history, we may have an unprecedented opportunity to bring to an end the long debate over whether women should be in combat, to expand career opportunities for women in the military and to remove what has been an overwhelming obstacle to women's equality and the Equal Rights Amendment; and
WHEREAS, exclusion of women from positions arbitrarily defined as "combat" is based on archaic ideas of what women and men are physically and emotionally capable of doing and outdated ideas of what modern military theory and combat are; and
WHEREAS, the definition of "combat" is ambiguous and varies from branch to branch; armed conflicts since World War II rarely involve readily definable front-lines, rear echelon units may be a 30 second missile flight from the so-called front-line, and in modern military theory rear support troops are destroyed first before assaulting those up front; and
WHEREAS, the combat exclusion does not protect women; 80-90% of the casualties in conflicts since World War II have been civilians and the majority have been women and children; women and children are subjected to violence every day on the streets and in our homes; rather than creating restrictions on women under the guise and illusion of protection, we would all be better protected by seeking diplomatic, economic and other non-violent ways to resolve international differences other than armed conflict; and
WHEREAS, the exclusion of women from combat in the modern military is a fraud only to perpetuate a second class status of women in the military; economically and educationally disadvantaged young women cannot use the armed services, which are the largest vocational training grounds in the U.S., in the same way young men can to help themselves; young men can join, get training, a possibility of pension and often veterans preferences in hiring when they leave the military; young women face higher entrance requirements and quotas limiting the numbers of women who get into the military -- and once they get in, women receive less training and fewer promotions; women are almost 11% of the military, but fill only .9% of the military's top 1000 officers' jobs and only about .8% of the top 15,000 senior enlisted positions; and
WHEREAS, the combat exclusion hurts our country's defense and foreign policy; women are effectively eliminated from most high ranking leadership positions in the military by being excluded from career enhancing, command positions defined as "combat"; and with women's perspective missing from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other military policy bodies, our country's public policy is poorer; and
WHEREAS, all of us are better protected when those serving in the military are selected based on their individual strength and ability to do the job and not on an automatic presumption that all men and no women are qualified for the 50% of the military jobs defined as "combat";
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that NOW demands equality for women in joining the military and in training, job assignments and benefits in the military; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that NOW actively supports elimination of statutory restrictions on women in the military.