The Corps is allowing women into infantry school. Story here:
Now, first off, for all the whiners out there, they aren’t yet making them 03XX’s. Women are simply going to infantry school. They are not yet becoming infantry. The opinion is pretty well against it, but the only constant is change, and the Corps has consistently been the branch most willing to embrace change. Frankly, I think forcing Marines to go sleeves down is a bigger issue than this.
I think this is a really good thing, and will keep the Corps on the cutting edge of warfighting excellence. Taking the issue of women in the infantry aside for the moment, this is still a good thing. Women are occasionally finding themselves in combat. Were my daughter, or my sister (as I consider a fellow Marine) to end up having to assault through a near ambush after losing her 7 ton in a convoy, or repel an attack at an Entry Control Checkpoint, I’d rather she were trained to the standards of an infantryman, rather than the sad 2-week basic course your average pogue (Personnel Other than Grunt) gets.
Secondly, perhaps this will strengthen the resolve of the men in infantry school. Who is going to want to fall out of a hump or get choked out in front of a woman?
As to letting women into the infantry, it’s going to happen. Would you rather it happen overnight where every girl who just saw the newest Katy Perry video wants to join the grunts, or with a break-in period preparing them for or giving them an idea of the rigors of infantry life to dissuade the weak of spirit?
Now, as a grunt (albeit principally mechanized) I’ll just out and say it: women should be allowed in the infantry.
As expected, the usual naysayers have come out. And they’re the same ones that said we should keep blacks out. They’re the same ones who not a year ago said letting the gays be in openly would destroy the Corps. Where’d that get us? Letting gays in made us even LESS fashionable as we went sleeves down.
I fail to understand how the conservative argument that the invisible hand would end discrimination doesn’t apply to women in combat. The argument goes thusly: Let us assume just for argument that the average white man is 90% superior to the average black man in any given area. If an employer hired all whites, he would lose out on the 10% of black people that are better than the average white person. Therefore, his business would fail in a competitive marketplace that hired the best workers independent of discrimination.
I’ll be the first person to say that the average man makes a better grunt than the average woman. But there are women that CAN do the job, and do it damn well. The Corps is poorer for filling a boat space with a weak man while leaving a strong woman behind a desk down at admin.
I can hear you already, “But Jefferson, what about how they water down the standards for women?” Well, don’t! Look, two wrongs don’t make a right. Women overwhelmingly vote in a manner contrary to the principles of liberty, small government, and the rights of man. Would you then propose we take away women’s suffrage? A woman has the right to vote; that she uses that right irresponsibly is of no relevance.
The same point stands for the idea that men would rush into danger recklessly out of some sense of chivalry to protect a woman. You do not deny women equal rights because men cannot handle it responsibly. Besides, men will throw themselves into the grinder one after the other to protect their fellow male Marine.
People fear/reject that which they don’t understand. Just as with any minority group, once a woman takes that M240 off of your back on a 20 mile hump, your respect for her will increase several times faster than seeing her sitting behind the admin desk screwing up your paperwork while everyone assumes she picked up NCO because she was, “blowing the 1stSgt.”
To be perfectly honest, I think that’s what most of these people fear: the shame of being shown up by a woman. Nonhackers will still be able to strut around thinking they’re badasses if a man relieves their burden, but their own weakness will be undeniable to their insecure selves once a woman proves herself a superior warfighter.
That isn’t to say that I don’t have my own fears. As with ending DADT, which I supported, I’m concerned with an erosion of my Corps’s culture. The first female to complain because she overhead a Marine call another a pussy, or that he’s acting like a girl, needs a quick trip to the company office for a talking to. But, as with most things, people simply fear change and the impact of women into the infantry will be a non-issue a year after it’s implemented.
By the way, here’s that video:
