Women in Combat = Gender Equality & Peace (?)
About two weeks ago the US Defense Secretary lifted the ban on women in combat jobs. Both feminists and peace activists are still a bit troubled. Two questions stand out. Can this be considered a step on the way to achieving gender equality? And will it contribute to a more peaceful world?
This ban is considered special for many reasons but primarily for its role in ensuring women's security. Well, we are familiar enough with the logic of masculinist protection where men and governments are dedicated to defend our bodies and lives in order to achieve their political goals. That's why I feel a sort of relief now when the debate on Leon Panetta's decision to allow women to serve in combat is turning to a discussion on whether they are strong enough. I am not worried about women not being as good as men.
Why, then, lifting this ban troubles me so much?
One must admit that from a feminist perspective the existence of a ban prohibiting women from doing jobs that men can do in a liberal country in the twenty first century is nonsense in itself. A truly liberal state – I wanted to use the expression “a women friendly state” but somehow it sounds inappropriate to call a country giving women (as well as men) the right to professional killing “women friendly” – would remove such a ban rather quietly, feeling more ashamed of having had it than proud of lifting.
Is this, however, for women, or rather about women? Cynthia Enloe raises a similar doubt when she asks whether genuine women's liberation can be measured by giving women equal opportunity to kill in the name of national security. I would add another question to this: Which women? Which women (if any) can be liberated by the act of removing the ban on combat jobs? American women who dream about pursuing a career in the US military? Local women in conflict zones who will meet American female soldiers on the front line? All women? Or maybe is it the culture of inequality which will be “liberated” so that military men don't think of women as inferior in combat or out of combat?
Let's not forget that the way many governments empower one group of people too often leaves out another.
Anyhow, this is not what disturbs me most, at least not exactly. As feminists we agreed that security cannot be achieved while gender inequalities persist. Madeleine Rees, the Secretary General of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, has recently reminded us of a study from the Second World War showing that the main causes of violence are inequalities and particularly gender inequalities.
But she also noticed that what perpetrates these inequalities and what keeps them in their places is… violence. And it is a state military that has the monopoly to legitimate violence.
So, opening the gate for American women to succeed in combat jobs, will it, after all, make the world more equal but less violent?
Young, Iris M. “The Logic of Masculinist Protection: Reflections on the Current Security State.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 29/1 (2003): 1-24.
Enloe, Cynthia. “Combat: the Zone of Women's Liberation?” (Accessed: 5/2/2013)
http://www.progressive.org/combat-the-zone-of-women-and-liberation
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The ideas expressed in this blog are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect WILPF's views.