Females in Direct Combat

Greetings, Friends! Today my mind is focused on the news about females being allowed in direct combat. This means teen girls as young as eighteen. Every day at school, I look around my classroom and see many girls who have turned eighteen or are almost there.

These girls are intelligent, fit, curious, and skilled. I do understand the equality issue. After all, I grew up in the Gloria Steinem era. But I must confess I shudder at the possibility of these girls in direct combat.

Maybe it’s the mother in me coming out…

Kathleen Parker, who writes for the Washington Post says, “This is a terrible idea… arguments against women in combat have nothing to do with courage, skill, patriotism or dedication.” She goes on to say that women can indeed excel in all these areas, even passing up their male counterparts on occasion. However, she sates that females have only half the upper-body strength as males – no small point in the field. (See full article here.)

Susan Estrich brings up another aspect to think about, “…women who are captured as prisoners of war would not only be killed, as men are, but also sexually assaulted.”  (See full article here.)

There are many thought provoking articles available on this topic, both pro and con, and because my life is filled with teen girls I have been reading the articles with great interest.

How do you feel about it? Should females be allowed in direct combat? I’d love to know your thoughts on the issue.

And as always, thanks for stopping by.

Brenda

P.S. Next week my book The Lance Temptation releases from Astraea Press. It’s a good, clean teen read. I hope you’ll grab a copy!