| children and war | race&class | gender | sexual orientation |

Chapter 7: Eros and Thanatos

 
We believe in the nobility and self-sacrifice demanded by war, especially when we are blinded by the narcotic of war. We discover in the communal struggle, the shared sense of meaning and purpose, a cause. War fills our spiritual void. I do not miss war, but I miss what it brought. I can never say I was happy in the midst of the fighting in El Salvador, or Bosnia, or Kosova, but I had a sense of purpose, of calling. And this is a quality war shares with love, for we are, in love, also able to choose fealty and self-sacrifice over security.

(Hedges, War Is a Force p.158)

Children and War

Books

  • Singer, Peter W. Children at War. (Pantheon Books) 2004. Human Rights, Defense, Force and Legitimacy, Sudan. Children at War is the first comprehensive book to examine the growing and global use of children as soldiers. P. W. Singer, an internationally recognized expert on twenty-first-century warfare, explores how a new strategy of war, utilized by armies and warlords alike, has targeted children, seeking to turn them into soldiers and terrorists.

Lessons

  • Children of War - Kennedy Center
    This lesson explores the realities and effects of war on children by examining diaries, journals, and letters written by children during times of war. Through class discussion and studying various texts of actual events, students will examine the similarities and differences of children's experiences during wartime in different parts of the world, as well as the power of documenting these experiences in writing. The lesson culminates with a variety of creative and interactive theater exercises that broaden students' understandings of children during times of war.
  • Children of War - Discovery Channel
    Students will read, analyze, and discuss excerpts from children's war diaries; and create a storyboard for a public service announcement on children's rights in wartime.

Articles

Links

  • Children and War Foundation
    The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 39) promises that we "shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim of any form of ...armed conflict. Such recovery and reintegration shall take place in an environment which fosters the health, self-respect and dignity of the child". Until now, that is a promise that has rarely been kept.

  • Children of War: fighting, dying, surviving
    A one-hour radio documentary focusing on current events and issues involving children and military conflict.

  • Children in War - 1996
    Children have, of course, always been caught up in warfare. They usually have little choice but to experience, at minimum, the same horrors as their parents--as casualties or even combatants. And children have always been particularly exposed. When food supplies have run short, it is children who have been hardest hit, since their growing bodies need steady supplies of essential nutrients. When water supplies have been contaminated, it is children who have had the least resistance to the dangers of disease. And the trauma of exposure to violence and brutal death has emotionally affected generations of young people for the rest of their lives. Recent developments in warfare have significantly heightened the dangers for children. During the last decade, it is estimated (and these figures, while specific, are necessarily orders of magnitude) that child victims have included: 2 million killed; 4-5 million disabled; 12 million left homeless; more than 1 million orphaned or separated from their parents; some 10 million psychologically traumatized.

  • Children in War- International Committee of the Red Cross
    Overview of the issues relating to children in war, offering useful links to other relevant content including international humanitarian law, restoring family links, mine awareness and communication programmes for young people.

  • Children in War
    CHILDREN IN WAR is the tragic story of modern warfare and terrorism as told by the children of Bosnia, Israel, Rwanda and Northern Ireland.
  • Children of War
    We focus on providing the most needy children and disabled citizens of Afghanistan with a primary education, a nutritious diet, and valuable job skills through the schools and skills training facilities we operate within Afghanistan.

  • Terrorism and Children
    When War is in the News: Talking to Children About Terrorism and Armed Conflict

  • War Child
    War Child International is a network of independent organisations, working across the world to help children affected by war, founded upon a fundamental goal: to advance the cause of peace through investing hope in the lives of children caught up in the horrors of war. War Child works in many different conflict areas around the world, helping hundreds of thousands of children every year.

  • UNICEF
    UNICEF is the driving force that helps build a world where the rights of every child are realized. We have the global authority to influence decision-makers, and the variety of partners at grassroots level to turn the most innovative ideas into reality.  That makes us unique among world organizations, and unique among those working with the young.

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War and Race, Class, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

Representation of the varied population in a diverse country at war has been a recurring issue in both modern and historical warfare. While women have been underrepresented in the military, various racial groups fight against overrepresentation. This is not to mention the "Don't ask, Don't tell" policy of LGBTs in the military. The proposed solutions to representation vary from reinstating the draft to eliminating war altogether, but the issue remains that neither existing conditions nor any possible future situation will ever satisfy every group simultaneously. Knowing this to be true, what can be done?

Race & Class

Books

Chapter 6: From Underrepresentation to Overrepresentation: African American Women
Stiehm, Judith. It's Our Military, Too. Temple University Press, (1996).

Dansby, Mickey R. and James B. Stewart, Schuyler C. Webb. Managing diversity in the military: Research Perspectives from the Defense. Transaction Publishers (2001).

Movies

Glory (1989) USA 122min. Directed by Edward Zwick. Stars Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman.
Based on the letters of Colonel Robert G. Shaw. Shaw was an officer in the Federal Army during the American Civil War who volunteered to lead the first company of black soldiers. Shaw was forced to deal with the prejudices of both the enemy (who had orders to kill commanding officers of blacks), and of his own fellow officers. (imdb)

 

Essays

Schiffrin, Ben. Recent Developments: Universal National Service Act. Harvard Law Journal on Legislation (2004).

Articles

Bruce, Ian. US death toll in Iraq is 'mostly white and poor' The Herald (2008). The 4000 US soldiers killed in Iraq in the past five years were predominantly white and more than one in three came from poor southern states, according to a casualty analysis carried out by The Herald. The 36% of southern boys came from small towns such as Bauxite, Arkansas. There were also losses from Glasgow, Kentucky, and Midlothian, Virginia. Texas was hardest hit of the old Confederate states, losing 371 dead and 2840 wounded.

Editorial: Canadian Forces. Asian Pacific Post. (2007)
The question is provocative. It is one that can create cruel debate and wrong conclusions. But it needs to be asked. Why are all the Canadian soldiers being killed in Afghanistan white? Where are our new Canadians from China, India, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and the rest of Asia? Sixty four of the 66 Canadian military personnel killed in Afghanistan since the start of the mission in 2002 are white Canadians. The other two are black Canadians.

Baca, Herman. The Chicano Moratorium August 29, 1970 Still Remembered After 35 Years "The Day Police Rioted!" La Prensa Sandiego (2005).

Hernandez, Sandra and Rafael Olmeda. Debate Over Role of Minorities in the Military. HispanicBusiness.com (2003).
"There is an impression out there that Latinos are over-represented in the military," says Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington-based group that recently conducted a study looking at how Latinos have fared in the military. The study found that Latinos were underrepresented in the armed forces as of September 2001. There were nearly 110,000 Hispanics, comprising less than 9.5 percent of the armed forces' 1.15 million personnel, according to the study. Latinos make up nearly 13 percent of the population, according to the latest U.S. Census figures.

Huang, Phil. Make Draft Not War. Oregon Daily Emerald at University of Oregon (2002).
A draft may bring racial balance to our military. The Army's Web site notes that 45 percent of Army enlistees are minorities; 29 percent are black. Unlike in higher education, we don't hear conservatives moan about overrepresentation of minorities in the military. A draft ensures middle-class white males are fairly represented on the frontlines.

Jones, Rachel L. Minorities in the Military. Chicago Reporter.
Though Operation Desert Storm is becoming a faint memory, debate over the issue of minority representation in the military lingers on. In an article on the disproportionate representation of minorities in the military (See "80 Percent of Chicago-Area Recruits Are Minorities," The Chicago Reporter, Jan. 1991), Chicagoan Barbara Carter, the mother of an Army reservist sent to the war, agonized over her daughter's safety. She also criticized dissent over the war by college activists. "Tomorrow, they're going to get out of their lily-white beds and go to their classes, and my daughter will be out there dodging bullets," said Carter, who is black.

Jones, Rachel L. New Military Data: 80 Percent of Chicago-Area Recruits are Minorities. Chicago Reporter.

Kane, Tim. Who Are the Recruits? The Demographic Characteristics of U.S. Military Enlistment, 2003-2005. Heritage Foundation (2006).
The most overrepresented group is Native Hawaiian/ Other Pacific Islander, with a ratio of 7.49 in 2005, or an overrepresentation of 649 percent. The Asian category is the most underrepresented group, with a ratio of 0.69 in 2005. Similar ratios appear in the proportional representation of racial groups among Army recruits in both 2004 and 2005, with the exception that blacks are more proportionally represented among 2005 Army recruits than they are in the total recruit population. The change in proportional representation of blacks among military recruits is a notable change from the 2003 cohort to the 2004 and 2005 cohorts. In the last three quarters of the 2003 recruit year, blacks were largely overrepresented, with a recruit-to-population ratio of 1.32 among all recruits and 1.44 among Army recruits. For 2004, these ratios were 1.19 and 1.17, respectively. In 2005, they were 1.07 and 0.96, respectively, which indicates that in the past two years of military recruits, the proportion of blacks in the military approached the proportion of blacks in the population.

Rosenberg, John. Preference for (Not in the) Military. Discriminations.us (2003).
Controversy continues to swirl around the Rangel-Hollings bill to bring back the draft, which was intended to correct a disproportionate representation of minorities in the military (and hence a disproportionate risk as we prepare for war) that appears not to exist. A recent Dept. of Defense study did find that 21% of military personnel are black, but, according to an article on the controversy in the Washington Post, "they tend to work in areas away from the front lines, in roles such as administration, combat support and medical and dental care."

Segal, David R. and Mady Wechsler Segal. Army Recruitment Goals Endangered as Percent of African American Enlistees Declines. Population Reference Bureau, (2005).
Since virtually the beginning of the all-volunteer U.S. military in 1973, African Americans have enlisted for service in the armed forces at much higher levels than their percentage of the total U.S. population. After reaching a high of 28 percent in 1979, black enlistment levels hovered around 20 percent until 2000.

Race and Gender in the Military New York Times, (1999).
Harry Truman's 1948 executive order integrating the armed forces created a black management class and got blacks and whites to live and work together on relatively peaceful terms long before the society as a whole was ready to tackle this issue. The military is still well ahead of the private sector when it comes to incorporating women and minorities into management positions. But a pair of surveys released by the Pentagon this week revealed that, though progress continues, racial friction is still a pressing problem and prejudices based on race and gender remain a serious obstacle to full integration of the officer corps.

The Killing Fields Aren't Level. New York Times, (1991).
From World War II through Vietnam, most U.S. servicemen were drafted, the armed forces were larger, and minority representation was in closer proportion to the population. Today's all-volunteer system replaced the draft in 1973.

Graphs and Tables

"Selected Reserve Enlisted Members, by Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Component, and Civilian Labor Force 18-49 Years Old." Department of Defense (2000).
Substantial gender differences exist in the racial and ethnic composition of Reserve Component members. While Black males represent 15 percent of the male enlisted Selected Reserve, Black females represent 30 percent of females. Approximately 57 percent of USAR females are minorities: 41 percent Black, 11 percent Hispanic, and nearly 6 percent in the "Other" racial category. Conversely, the ANG has the lowest proportion of minority females (29 percent), comparable to the 18- to 49-year-old civilian labor force (30 percent).

"Population Representation in the Armed Services" Department of Defense (2000).
The military attracts and retains higher proportions of Blacks and "Other" minority groups but lower proportions of Hispanics than are in the civilian labor force. 
See also http://www.defenselink.mil/prhome/poprep2000.

US Military Recruits by Race Heritage Foundation, (2006).
Data from 2004-2005, ethnicities by population and recruit percentages.

Links

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Gender: Women in the Military

Mentioning women warriors brings to mind the notable figures from history, such as the 15th century Joan of Arc, as well as fictional examples from Eowyn of Lord of the Rings to Æon Flux of science-fiction/comic fame. The reality of women soldiers seving in modern wars is of course much less mythical. While Chris Hedges points out that it has been recognized "girls make much better child soldiers than boys because they are less prone to hysterics" (War is a Force p. 101), the Selective Service drafts only males and as of 2004 only 15% of the armed forces are female.

Draft

Women have never been drafted into military service in the United States. Women are not required to register by the Selective Service. In the 1980 case of Rostker v. Goldberg, the registration of women was examined by the Supreme Court.

The question of registering women was extensively considered by Congress in hearings held in response to the President's request for authorization to register women, and its decision to exempt women was not the accidental byproduct of a traditional way of thinking about women.

The case goes on to say since Congress decreed that a future draft would be precipitated by a need for combat soldiers, women who are unilaterally excluded from combat would not fill the need. Moreover, "Congress was entitled, in the exercise of its constitutional powers, to focus on the question of military need, rather than equity."

Books

Holmstedt, Kristen and L. Tammy Maj. Duckworth. Band of Sisters: American Women at War in Iraq. Stackpole Books. 2007.
Holmstedt started studying the experience of women marines when she lived near Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Her research became a master's thesis in creative writing and the most up-to-date discussion of women in the current war. Unblushingly in favor of women in combat, she doesn't whitewash their experiences or exaggerate their achievements. Their male colleagues aren't universally accepting, but many of them admit that the women are performing effectively; since 20 percent of the troops currently in Iraq are women, they must. Following the tradition of American soldiers before them, they say that they are "just doing the job." That is, they are flying F-18s into enemy ground fire, driving Hummers and trucks that may be ambushed at any moment, and playing invaluable roles in intelligence operations and in the nation building that is one of the more positive aspects of a seemingly interminable and frustrating conflict. Nearly 500 female soldiers have been killed or wounded in Iraq. (from Amazon)

McKelvey, Tara (Ed.). One of the Guys. Seal Press. 2006
The debate about women and torture has, until recently, focused on women as victims of violence. But when photographs were released from the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal, one featured Lynndie England holding a prisoner by a dog leash. Overnight, she became a symbol of women's capacity to inflict pain and suffering -- and soon, many in America were questioning why the infliction of violence has always been seen as inherently male. One of the Guys deals specifically with this issue. (from Amazon)

Wise, James E. and Scott Baron. Women at War: Iraq, Afganistan and Other Conflicts. US Naval Institute Press. 2006
Today, women in all U.S. military services are involved in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. They serve as pilots and crewmen of assault helicopters, bombers, fighters, and transport planes, and are frequently engaged in firefights with enemy insurgents while guarding convoys, traveling in hostile territory. They perform pat down searches of Arab women at checkpoints, carry out military police duties, and serve aboard Navy and U.S. Coast Guard ships at sea. Like their male counterparts, they carry out their missions with determination and great courage. The advent of the insurgency war, which has no rear or front lines, has made the debate regarding women in combat irrelevant. In such a war zone anyone can be killed or injured at any moment. (from Amazon)

Solaro, Erin. Women in the Line of Fire: What You Should Know about Women in the Military. Seal Press. 2006.
In 2004, Erin Solaro went to Iraq to study American servicewomen -- what they were doing, how well they were doing it, how they were faring in combat. In 2005, she went to Afghanistan on the same mission. Having spent time embedded with combat troops and conducting stateside interviews with numerous analysts and veterans, Solaro is convinced that the time to drop all remaining restrictions on women's full equality under arms is now. The Army, the country, the women of America -- and of the world -- need it. (Amazon)

Women in the Line of Fire details why this will not be an easy task. Although 15 percent of the military is female, the Army and Marines still resist acknowledging what is, in fact, already happening -- women are fighting, and fighting well. For the Religious Right and the cultural conservatives, women in combat is a hot-button issue in their campaign to “take back the culture.” But for the young men and women on the lines, brought up in an America where equality between the sexes was never second guessed and where making up the rules as you go along comes with the territory, it's the new reality. (Amazon)

Williams, Kayla. Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army. W. W. Norton. 2005.
Williams's war memoir is just one in a string that originated from recent U.S.-led forays into the Middle East, and its uniqueness comes from its female perspective. Critics agree that Love My Rifle is no deep piece of literature. Instead, it's a shocking, on-the-ground view of one military woman's experience in Iraq. Williams spares no details about the stress of combat, the questionable treatment of Iraqi prisoners, and her scathing opinion of the U.S. administration, though she never explains why she enlisted in the first place. As one of only 15 percent of women employed by the Army, Williams possibly overplays the sexual harassment she suffered--or so claim a few of the more suspect male reviewers. But the story's not over: Williams can be called back to duty any time. (Amazon)

Goldstein, Joshua S. War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa. Cambridge University Press. 2003. Web site
The war between the sexes is not so different from war itself, according to this provocative and disturbing study of how gender is inextricably embedded into human conceptions of war and aggression. Pointing to consistent, cross-cultural gender arrangements throughout history most fighting soldiers have been male; patriarchies have traditionally used the ideal of the vulnerable female to encourage male violence during war. (from Publishers Weekly)

V.V.A.A. War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters who Covered Vietnam. Edited by Jurate Kasickas. Random House. 2002
Women correspondents in Vietnam were a rarity and frequently discouraged by the military as well as by paternalistic editors who resisted giving them combat assignments. But the nine women reporters whose harrowing war stories are recounted here e.g., Bartimus (Associated Press), Edie Lederer (Associated Press), Anne Merrick (ABC-TV), Laura Palmer (ABC and NBC Radio), and more were determined to go to Vietnam to cover the biggest story of their generation. In the course of their work, one was captured and imprisoned by the enemy and two others were seriously injured. For each woman Vietnam was a life-changing event, her "phantom limb," as Bartimus calls it. These powerful stories of sex, drugs, fear, adventure, horror, and pathos, as well as "the unabashed love" that these reporters observed the men on the battlefield expressing to one another, offer a new perspective on the war and warfare journalism. (from Amazon)

Fenner, Lorry and Marie deYoung. Women in Combat: Civic Duty or Military Liability? (Contrtoverises in Public Policy). Georgetown University Press. 2001.
This is a pro-con debate on women in the military. Fenner is pro, arguing it is a civic duty and an important part of democracy. DeYoung is against, based largely on biological arguments. (from Amazon)

Grant de Pawn, Linda. Battle Cries and Lullabies: Women in War from Prehistory to Present. Univerity of Oklahoma Press. 2000.
In a work infused with meticulous citations and presented in a logical chronology, De Pauw (history, George Washington Univ.; Seafaring Women, 1982) covers thousands of years and spans the globe to reveal the role of women in the military?a subject hardly covered by military history and contemporary women's studies. (From Library Journal)

Willenz, June A. Women Veterans: America's Forgotten Heroines. AuthorHouse. 2000.
The first book to explore the wide-ranging impacts of women's experiences in the military and as veterans, Women Veterans reveals a shocking pattern of discrimination and neglect by our government. Though forgotten heroines, these women had a profound effect upon American society and history. Willenz interprets how women's service influenced the social and economic changes that shaped our modern world. (from Amazon)

Mitchell, Brian. Women in the Military: Flirting with Disaster. Regnery Publishing, Inc. 1998
The disaster Mitchell deplores has so far been on an individual scale: a few suicides, forced retirements and discharges, and the trials of drill sergeants. This litany is hardly a bill of good organizational health, and the public policy question has thus become whether to press forward with gender integration of the armed forces--or to pause and reconsider the wisdom of the effort. Conservatives such as Mitchell take succor from second thoughts emerging from such neoliberal tastemakers as columnist Richard Cohen of the Washington Post. Mitchell, hardly a guarded writer, disputes every argument ever put forward to open the military services to women, and for evidence he reviews most of the studies and commissions that have examined the issue since the 1970s. (from Amazon)

Francke, Linda B. Ground Zero: The Gender Wars in the Military. Simon & Schuster. 1997.
When women enter a traditionally male profession, their competence always comes under fire. Nowhere is this more marked than in the American military, where those immersed in the warrior culture remain staunchly convinced that women can't cut it--can't hump as much equipment, can't make split-second decisions, can't shoot straight, and shouldn't, in fact, be asked to do so because such participation would spark confusing cultural dissonance. If men are cast as protectors and women as caretakers, it's impossible to stomach the thought that women could be taken prisoner, leave their children for a war zone, or shoot to kill. Journalist Linda Bird Francke raises many excellent questions in this timely, blistering tour through a military landscape rife with sexism, harassment, and outright denial that women can and have played crucial roles in combat.

Elshtain, Jean B. Women and War. University of Chicago Press. 1995
Jean Elshtain examines how the myths of Man as "Just Warrior" and Woman as "Beautiful Soul" serve to recreate and secure women's social position as noncombatants and men's identity as warriors. Elshtain demonstrates how these myths are undermined by the reality of female bellicosity and sacrificial male love, as well as the moral imperatives of just wars. (from Amazon)

Horm, Jeanne. Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution. Presidio Press. 1993
Holm has updated this standard work, originally published in 1982, by adding material on the role of military women in the Grenada, Panama and Persian Gulf campaigns, along with a discussion of the bitter ongoing debate over the combat exclusion laws and draft policies relating to women. A retired Air Force major general, she chronicles women's struggle for a proper place in the armed services in the face of the sexist male leadership, which tolerated their presence as nurses and office clerks but did not take them seriously as soldiers until such breakthroughs as the introductions of weapons training in 1975 and the graduation of the first female cadet from West Point in 1980. Holm describes how Operation Desert Storm in 1991 became the catalyst for demands to review in practical terms the role of women in combat. (from Publishers Weekly)

Articles

Women at War (The American Conservative) April 7, 2008.
The strain of Iraq forced the shock integration of women into the military. The results aren't at all pretty.

Rapists in the ranks (LA Times) March 31, 2008.
Sexual assaults are frequent, and frequently ignored, in the armed services. Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.

Women In The Military. (Democratic Party) July 30, 2007
At the 2007 National NOW Conference held in Detroit earlier this month, a Resolution was passed to form an "ad hoc" committee to study the health issues of women in the military. This committee plans to work with other organizations to find solutions to the many problems facing women in the armed forces. (The full resolution can be found by going to the 2007 National Now Conference site at http://now.org).

The Private War of Women Soldiers: Female Vet, Soldier Speak Out on Rising Sexual Assault Within US Military (DemocracyNow) March 8, 2007.
Columbia U Prof Helen Benedict discusses her work with the increasing numbers of women in the military and the astonishingly high rate of assault and harassment, Eli Painted Crow, a 22-year vet talks about her time in Iraq and, in one of the more disturbing parts, Janis Karpinski reveals that General Sanchez ordered that dehydration deaths of frightened female soldiers were not to be labeled as such.

Female Pilots Get Their Shot in the Iraqi Skies: Men Say Women Are Proving Skills in Direct Combat (Washington Post) February 26, 2006.

Army women defy insurgents, taboo (USA Today) July 24, 2005.
Saturday's graduating group was the first all-female class of recruits trained by female trainers on an Iraqi-run base. Smaller groups of women have trained in Jordan and held military police jobs. The new training reflects a growing role for women in Iraq's armed forces. "The Iraqi army is actively recruiting women," said Lt. Col. Fred Wellman, spokesman for Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in charge of equipping and training Iraqi security forces. "They need them. There are certain jobs absolutely necessary to women."

Attack focuses attention on female troops in Iraq (USA Today) June 25, 2005.
As the U.S. battles growing insurgency, female troops are taking a greater part in close-quarters combat.

Wounded in War: The Women Serving in Iraq (NPR) March 14, 2005.
For the first time in American history, a substantial number of the combat wounded are women -- in part because the front lines in this war can be anywhere.

1 in 7 U.S. Military Personnel in Iraq Is Female (Women's E-News) March 22, 2003.
The war with Iraq will be the largest deployment of women to a combat theater to date, marking more than a century of women's military service.

Photo Essay

Women Warriors: An Intimate Look at the lives of Women Soldiers in Iraq (Time) 2008.

Movies

Into the Fire: American women in the Spanish Civil War (2002) 58 min USA, Directed by Julia Newman
In 1936, a right-wing military coup tried to overthrow the new, legally elected, democratic government of Spain. Hitler and Mussolini quickly joined the fight on the side of the fascist military. In response, and against the wishes of the U.S. government, about 80 American women joined over 2700 of their countrymen to volunteer for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. This film is composed of interviews with and excerpts from the letters, journals, and published writings of some of these women, as well as of supporters and sympathizers including Martha Gellhorn, Eleanor Roosevelt, Virginia Cowles, Josephine Herbst, and Dorothy Parker. (from IMDB)

Free a Man to Fight: Women Soldiers of WWII (1999) 55min Directed by Mindy Pomper Johnson
The dire manpower shortage of WWII forced the United States military to open its doors to women. 1942 became the first time in history that women were actually recruited for military service. 400,000 women volunteered, the highest number in U.S. history. When the war began, military policy dictated that women were capable of being assigned only to positions as cook, driver and nurse. By the time the war ended, they were serving in over 200 different types of jobs considered to be man's work. Their efforts changed themselves, society and the military forever. (Amazon)

 

GI Jane (1997) 124min Directed by Ridley Scott. Stars Demi Moore, Viggo Mortenson
When a crusading chairperson of the military budget committee pressures the would be Navy secretary to begin full gender integration of the service, he offers the chance for a test case for a female trainee in the elite Navy SEALS commando force. Lt. Jordan O'Neill is given the assignment, but no one expects her to succeed in an inhumanly punishing regime that has a standard 60% dropout rate for men. However, O'Neill is determined to prove everyone wrong. (imdb)

 

V for Victory: Women at War (1988)
V for Victory: Women at War details women's essential contributions to the national war effort during World War II. Original newsreel stories illustrate the period's most momentous events and highlight the era's prominent personalities. World War II changed life forever for the American woman, who now began to fill traditional male roles and earn new independence. From the home front and factories to the battle fields, the film examines women's sacrifices as well as their demonstrations of competency at this critical turning point in our country's history.

Women of Valor (1986) 100 min USA,
Col. Jessup (Susan Sarandon), an American military nurse, presents a case for a bronze medal with Valor to a military hearing. She tells her story of being taken prisoner in the Phillipines by the Japanese during WWII. Having survived a death march from Bataan Col. Jessup is put into a POW camp run by the enemy. She and her fellow prisoners struggle for survival, working 14 hour days with limited food and no medical supplies. After almost three years the prisoners are liberated by American forces.

 

The Hidden Army: Women in World War II
Three award-winning documentaries outlining women's contributions to the war effort: "The Hidden Army"; "Women in Defense," a rally film written by Eleanor Roosevelt and narrated by a young Katherine Hepburn; and "Army and Navy Nurse P.O.W.'s in WWII: They All Came Home."

 

 

The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (1980)
Documentary on the American home front during the Second World War. It's also an excellent and extremely entertaining look at the spark that ignited the women's liberation movement nearly thirty years before it 'officially' planted its roots. With thousands of men leaving the factories to fight in the war, and with the urgent, escalating need for America to arm itself, women were strongly encouraged to join the factory workforce. They came from all over the country and discovered skills they never knew they had, both as laborers, and as independent women. They were self-sufficient and strong (many of them endured double-shifts on a fairly regular basis), and they eventually discovered new freedoms by earning their own incomes and making their own choices on how to spend that money. Connie Field has created an extremely entertaining documentary that's choked full of interviews with women from all walks of life. She intersperses lots of the newsreel footage and the popular songs that had been created in order to encourage and inspire the female workforce. And she illustrates the myriad of ways in which women were discouraged from working after the war had ended, and how strong a role the media played in encouraging women to raise families and stay in the kitchen. This film is rare glimpse of the Second World War from the female perspective, and a vital document of American history. (from IMDB)

Women at War (1943) 21 min USA, Directed by Jean Negulesco
Three young women arrive at the Women's Army Corps facility in Fort Des Moines for varied reasons and with different goals. Mary Savage is a war widow who wants to become an officer, farm girl Stormy Hart wants to become involved in motor transport, and Lorna Travis seeks to win the approval of her father, a major general, who has very chauvinist views on the role of women in the military. Intensive training and guidance prepares the three to make a contribution to the success of the upcoming war games conducted by General Travis and validate the value of the WACS to the war effort

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Sexual Orientation

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue, Don't Harass
In the spring 2008 graduation of West Point cadets, speaker Navy Admiral Mike Mullen urged the cadets to treat everyone with respect. When a cadet asked about the "don't ask, don't tell" law and what would happen if someone took office who wants to change it, Mullen answered, "It's a law, and we follow it. Should the law change, the military will carry that out too." The US government has not always held so dispassionate a stance, but with the passage of time and the arrival of an increasingly unpopular war, even conservative critics of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy have admitted that now more than ever 'we need the people,' whoever, and of whatever orientation, they are.

Articles

Timelines

1993- The "don't ask, don't tell" policy is crafted by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network forms to support gay soldiers.

1995- 'Don't ask, Don't tell' is challenged in a number of appeals courts, with some victories and some losses for gays in the military.

1996- A witch hunt for gays explodes at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii after an airman names 17 military men with whom he had sex.

1998- As discharges under "don't ask, don't tell," climb, the Department of Defense issues its only review of the policy, concluding it is working well.

1998- The second U.S. circuit court of appeals upholds the policy's constitutionality.

1999- The Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military opens at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to promote the interdisciplinary analysis of gays in the military.

2000- The Department of Defense finds widespread antigay harassment in the military. An Anti-Harassment Action Plan is issued but not fully implemented.

2001- Discharges under "don't ask, don't tell" reach an all-time high of 1,273.

2003- Two retired generals and an admiral come out as gay and condemn "don't ask, don't tell." A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll finds that 79% of Americans believe gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military.

2008 - Presidential candidates: Democrat Barack Obama favors repealing the policy and allowing gay and lesbian people to serve openly in the armed forces. Republican McCain is opposed to allowing gay or lesbian people serve openly in the armed forces and approves of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy.

Movies

Yossi & Jagger (2002) Israel 65 minutes. Directed by Eytan Fox
A sociological study of two men in the Israeli army who are lovers. The others in the unit react to their situation, suspecting, but not always understanding. One will leave the military soon, a few months away, as a snowy and desolute outpost is guarded from attack. (imdb)

 

 

Books

Hunter, Mic. Honor Betrayed: Sexual Abuse in America's Military. (Barricade Books) 2007.

Lehmkuhl, Reichen. Here's what We'll Say: Growing Up, Coming Out, and the U.S. Air Force Academy. (Carroll & Graf) 2006.

Herek, Gregory M. and Jared B. Jobe, Ralph M. Carney. Out in Force: Sexual Orientation and the Military. (University of Chicago Press) 1996.

Tatchell, Peter. We Don't Want to March Straight: Masculinity, Queers and the Military. (Cassell) 1995.

Scott, Wilbur J. and Sandra Carson Stanley. Gays and Lesbians in the Military: Issues, Concerns, and Contrasts. (Aldine Transaction) 1994.

Shawver, Lois. And the Flag Was Still There. (Haworth Press) 1995.
Argues that the ban against homosexuals can be lifted without lowering morale, discusses the current policy, and examines the animosity towards homosexuals.

Carey, John J. The Christian Argument for Gays and Lesbians in the Military.
(Mellen University Press) 1993.

Wells-Petry, Melissa. Exclusion: Homosexuals and the Right to Serve (Regnery Publishing) 1993.

Links

AVER: American Veterans for Equal Rights
Throughout our history, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and two-spirit Americans served in the Armed Forces. They took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies both foreign and domestic. We aver that it is the right of these Americans to express personal aspects of their lives, and, in particular, aspects of their sexual orientation and/or gender identification. Furthermore, they should be allowed to do this in an environment free from harassment and discrimination based on prejudice, fear, ignorance, or intolerance in order to fulfill their human potential to the fullest.

Don't Ask Don't Tell Don't Pursue
A project of the Robert Crown Law Library at Stanford Law School, this Database is one of several digital law projects developed by the Library implementing new technologies and the Internet to assist students, teachers and practioners of law. The Don't Database contains primary materials on the U.S. military's policy on sexual orientation, from World War I to the present, as identified by Professor Janet E. Halley's book, Don't: A Reader's Guide to the Military's Anti-Gay Policy (Duke University Press, 1999), including legislation; regulations; internal directives of service branches; materials on particular service members' proceedings (from hearing board transcripts to litigation papers and court decisions); policy documents generated by the military, Congress, the Department of Defense and other offices of the Executive branch; and advocacy documents submitted to government entities.

Servicemember's Legal Defense Network
The Pentagon fires two gay people every day. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue, Don't Harass" is the only law in the land that authorizes the firing of an American for being gay. There is no other federal, state or local law like it. Indeed, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue, Don't Harass" is the only law that makes it illegal to come out. Many Americans view the policy as a benign gentlemen's agreement with discretion as the key to job security. That is simply not the case. An honest statement of one's sexual orientation to anyone, anywhere, anytime may lead to being fired.