|
WORD COUNT
632
APRIL 30, 2008
WOMEN SHOULD BE WARY
OF MILITARY RECRUITERS – by Martha Burk
The New York Times
is reporting that the U.S. Marine Corps, long a bastion of macho
military mystique, is now actively recruiting women. Ads are running in
such magazines as Shape, Self, and Fitness, which
mainly appeal to female readers. They show a woman marine striking a
martial arts pose in front of a crowd of men, who are supposedly looking
up to her as a leader. The tag line reads “There are no female marines.
Only marines.” In a shrinking economy, these ads may appeal to a lot of
women who need jobs. But like most advertising, they don’t tell the
whole story.
Since 2002 females
have served nearly 170,000 tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, and
rape and sexual assault against them by other soldiers as well as
contractor personnel appears to be serious and growing. Air Force
general William Begert , who investigated the problem in 2004, uncovered
scores of rape accusations, a rising trend of reported abuses, and the
most basic shortcomings in tracking the crime and attending to its
victims. Yet no concrete plans to stem the tide of violence against
military women have been implemented. According to The New York Times,
confidential surveys have found that up to 30 percent of female veterans
reported being victimized in sexual assaults while on active duty. Three
out of four said they had not dared to report it because of concerns
about privacy and career advancement.
Despite this alarming
rate of sexual assault, which can of course result in pregnancy, our
female soldiers cannot obtain abortions in U.S. military facilities at
home or abroad -- even if they pay for the procedure with their own
money. When deployed overseas, this could mean resorting to unsafe
local facilities if they are available. And in many foreign countries,
abortion is illegal, meaning non-military facilities are not an option,
whether they’re safe or not. Petitioning for leave to travel to a safe
hospital or clinic in another country is a catch-22. It means going
public, and the wait can be too long for such a petition to do any
good.
There are also a few
other little details the ads don’t mention. Although females have served
in the U.S. military since 1901, they are the only American women whose
professional advancement is artificially curtailed by government laws
and policies. In the last decade, laws banning women from serving on
military aircraft with combat missions and aboard combat ships were
repealed, but women still cannot serve aboard submarines, in infantry,
armor, and most artillery units, or in special forces units. Military
leaders themselves say these bans are increasingly artificial and
meaningless given today’s combat realities. And lesbians cannot serve
openly, going back to the Clinton-era “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
In addition to the
problems experienced by active servicewomen, the destruction of so many
military families has been one of the most tragic—and untold—effects of
the Iraq War. As more military women return from fighting in Iraq and
Afghanistan, they are finding that veterans services aren't meeting
their needs. An estimated 8,000 female veterans are homeless, and others
suffer from mental illness. Women in every military branch are twice as
likely to get divorced as men. Women’s advocates point out that
Congress has failed to appropriate adequate money for counseling and
support services to help keep families together.
The Marine Corps is
no doubt trying to attract women because it is stretched for recruits
for George and Dick’s war. All I can say to those women reading the new
ads is: Buyer beware. On the same day the stories about the new
“woman friendly” pitch ran in newspapers, NBC Nightly News
reported that the U.S. military is now so desperate it is accepting
felons, some with convictions for sexual assault.
--
Martha Burk is author
of Your Money and Your Life: The High Stakes for Women Voters
in ‘08 and Beyond, available at msmagazine.com – A photo of Martha
Burk is available
CLICK HERE
# # # # #
|
