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Unsung Heroes: Women’s Contributions in the Military and Why Their Song Goes Unsung

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Women in the Military and in Armed Conflict

Abstract

Six years after the terrorist attacks on the United States, the debate of women’s roles in the military continues to be hotly contested. The debate persists in spite of the fact that one of seven soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan (Ledford 2003) is a female and that women have received the Bronze Star for bravery in combat since the war in Iraq began in 2003. Officially, the US Pentagon maintains the policy that women cannot be assigned to a combat unit. However, women are assigned to support services that may be attached to a combat unit. Unofficially, however, the policy and the practice are apparently out of step. Whatever the assignments’ officially’ are, the reality is that any military assignment can potentially lead to a combat situation. The distinction between combatants and military support personnel is blurred. Those in the military are trained that’ a soldier is a soldier first and foremost’ and that they belong to the same team. The soldier’s sex/gender, on the other hand, is socially significant only to the degree that society makes it so.

I would like to thank graduate student Valerie Matteson for her assistance in locating and photocopying some of the reference material.

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  1. Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro, Pennsylvania, USA

    Irene Jung Fiala Ph.D. Sociology (Assistant Professor of Sociology)

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  1. Irene Jung Fiala Ph.D. Sociology
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Helena Carreiras Gerhard Kümmel

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Fiala, I.J. (2008). Unsung Heroes: Women’s Contributions in the Military and Why Their Song Goes Unsung. In: Carreiras, H., Kümmel, G. (eds) Women in the Military and in Armed Conflict. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-90935-6_3

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