The first breakthrough for women occurred during the Second World War when military manpower shortages resulted in massive mobilization efforts for women. By the numbers alone, the U.S. Army had a shortage of over 160,000 men during the summer of 1942 (Holm 23). Such short falls in military where

Since women began to enter the armed forces in greater numbers, a series of problems emerged. At the heart of it rested with the By Men For Men (BMFM) military system. Women often abhorred gang showers and hung curtains and read and relaxed on couches as opposed to the “beer bashes” of men (Holm 61). The masculine mystique of men made it difficult for many men to recognize that many jobs in the military were not inherently masculine (Holm 62). In addition to difficult environment, women were subjected to high levels of sexual harassment varying from verbal abuse to outright proposition (Holm 70). As for black women during that time, the idea of double jeopardy—that is, being black and a woman—best describes their position. Not only were they in segregated units, but usually in all women units as well (Holm 77). Often, only one black woman would be at the base, and that would leave many of the black women to feel alienated. Eventually, the integration of the military occurred with Truman’s Executive Order in 1948 (Holm 78). This managed to solve the problem of segregation, but sexism remained alive and well.

As usual, women often proved the stereotypes to be incorrect whenever the time for combat came. During the Tet Offensive, many nurses positioned at the army bases admirably performed their duties in the face of sustained attacks by the Viet Cong. This led many male staffers to defend women and request that they not be sent home (Holm 236). With every step that women made, the military tried to curb their entrance. When the Army did a test on women combat efficiency if integrated into male units, the Women in the Army study concluded women did not adversely impact unit performance (Holm 258). Male commanders who were often reluctant to deal with women’s problems found that could deal with them, and women began to successfully command mixed units (Holm 279). That didn’t stop the military from being prejudiced toward women and assuming that childcare placed a more difficult responsibility over women. As such, the military often discharged women for just becoming pregnant resulting in high attrition rates (Holm 292). This leads to another problem that the military perceived to exist—women’s pregnancies prevented took time away from military service. The funny thing was women only lost eleven weeks due to pregnancy as opposed to the twelve weeks men lost on deferments to be with their pregnant civilian wife (Holm 302). The military just wouldn’t face facts even tough the General Accounting Office had done an overall study and found that women lost less time because they were less prone to alcohol and drug abuse even if pregnancy was taken into account (Holm 389).

I took some of those stereotypes and attempted to see the overall public perception. Despite some men feeling that women couldn’t perform, most men and all the women felt women could be effective members that could contribute to soldiers in the front lines (Table 1 and 2). This is an important step because if the public watches long enough, a few women will prove everyone wrong, and this will lead to greater equality. If women don’t die and fight just like the men do, what right do they have to demand greater equality and respect when they already got it so good? That argument will not go away until women are fully integrated, and I for one think it’s possible and necessary.

The military finally got the chance to take a swipe at the increased encroachment of women into the services. With the Reagan administration, the Defense Department in 1981 did a study called Background Review: Women in the Military concluding that the integration of women as only a recruiting suggesting women could not perform well. This played well with the Reagan officials who believed the entire process to be some liberal led agenda (Holm 393). Ironically, studies done by the Army four years ago came to contradictory conclusion that wome

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