The Citizen-Soldier Tradition and Gender Integration of the U.S. Military

Abstract

Building on James Burk's contention that militaries must not only protect society from external enemies but also help sustain democratic values, this article reframes debates about women in the military that too often polarize conservatives who stress military effectiveness and liberals who advocate women's rights. Calling upon the citizen-soldier tradition, the article discusses gender integration in light of these civic premises: a) as democratic citizens, women are the civic equals of men; b) therefore, they must share responsibility for the military service; c) which is necessary to defend the United States of America against any forces, foreign or domestic, that threaten to undermine its democratic values. The article uses this "civic perspective" to analyze a variety of issues surrounding gender integration with a particular emphasis on debates about basic training.

Regendering the military: Theorizing women’s military participation

“…Whilst right-tofight feminists tend to be categorised as liberal feminists (see, for example, the classifications in Jones 1984; MacKenzie 2013), some draw on theoretical traditions which are more republican than liberal, arguing for women's full participation as equal citizens with an equal duty to undertake military service. In this view, women's military participation is as much a matter of democratic participation and responsibility as of gender equality (Mazur 1999;R. C. Snyder 2003;Kronsell 2012).…”

Reinventing the Matron: The Continued Importance of Gendered Images and Division of Labor in Modern Policing

“…Much research has focused on the gendered nature of the American workforce across multiple disciplines, exploring gendered behavior in medicine (Baxter, Cohen, and McLeod 1996;Field and Lennox 1996;Lambert and Holmboe 2005), law (Kay and Hagan 1998;Pierce 1995), the military (L. L. Miller 1997;Snyder 2003), and the criminal justice system (Britton 2003;Brown 1998;Kurtz 2008;Martin and Jurik 1996). In particular, the criminal…”

Rape, War, and the Socialization of Masculinity

“…Military training seeks to inhibit empathy (Cortright, 2006; Pershing, 2006) because it could be life threatening in a combat situation. One method of doing so is through hazing and humiliation rituals that extinguish feelings of empathy for others (Pershing, 2006; Snyder, 2003). One Israeli medic described a process of desensitization to the effects of violence that was part of his training: “[T]hey show you pictures of horrible things.…”