Custom «How Women are Treated Unfairly in the Military» Essay Paper Sample

Over the years, women have faced numerous challenges while serving the military. Military service demands forultimateobedience to senior officers. The higher ranks are male dominated and over time posing a challenge to women who occupyjuniorpositions. In the military men, mishandle women without acknowledging the fact that theyare entitledto equal rights and fair treatment like men.

Inwarmost womenare not treatedas military officers, most of the womenassumethesupportroles. The few women who were military police it was anuphilltask to assume the leadership roles. Men, both officers and sergeants,openlymakeinsultingremarks to women. Moreover, the men watch pornographic films and read pornographic materialsopenly. This is quiteoffensiveto women since most of them would feel uncomfortable in such anenvironment. Additionally, women often feel insecure in the military base.For instance for the women soldiers deployed to Kuwait felt they were not safe in their military base.This is because there were a number of restrictions made on women and most of themwere sexually assaultedand harassed.

Notably, women officersare assignedjobs that they never specialized in during their training. For instance, a medic in themedicinedepartment would be involuntarily moved to the Military policeunit. The same happens to soldiers in the kitchen department and the admin personnel. It is also clear that the government is not careful in implementing its policy of equal education opportunities to all. The militaryadministrationwas not carefulin seeing that the lessons acquired in classwere putin practice. Most of the teachingswere never seento be in the military. For instance, the soldierswere thoughton the moral values as a soldier and how they shouldtreatone another in line of duty. Surprisingly, the behavior of men towards women was not in accordance to the teachings.

Sexual harassment was akeychallenge for the women. The harassmentis first experiencedin the academy. Female cadets often face hostility and go through seductions by the senior officers. Recent research reveals that over 70% of women in active dutyare sexually harassed. The most common form of sexual harassment in the military is rape. For instance, in Iraq most women faced sexual harassment from fellow soldiers and their seniors. This made themstartwalking in groups even when going to the bathrooms to avoid cases ofbeing raped. The research also reveals that womenare not accordedthe treatment they deserve. Most of those rapedare not givenproper medical care or counseling to help them get rid of the trauma associated with the inhumane act.

Notably, the militaryadministrationis often not keen to address the challenges facing women in the military. Even after the rape cases, the raped women pay expensive medical fees to treat them and abort the baby. This makes the military women to live in fear and feelinferior. It is also disturbing to note that most women who launch complaintsare toldnotmakeanofficialcommunication.Those in authority argue that any communication would lead tofamilybreakups, the claims willlackevidence and that those women who launch complaintsare punishedfor giving falsified information.This discourages those women whohave been sexually harassedfrom launching com plaints since any communication woulddothem more harm thangood.For those women who have successfully launched complaints against their male counter parts they argue that littleis doneto the men in case they are guilty of such an offence.Most of the women whoare sexually harassedare leftto continue working around those men who harassed them. This affects them psychologicallyhencemaking them unable toservethe military with inner peace.

Women soldiersare also exposedto sex discrimination. Theyforma small percentage of the total numbers in the military. It ishardfor a female soldier toraiseranks in the army.For that ewho wishes togetseniorpostsare forcedto makeimmensesacrifices that affect their personal life. Most of them remain unmarriedhencedo not have a family. Theunmarriedsoldierschooseto adopt children instead of bearing their own. Somehavetomakesexual favors to the superiors in order togaina higher rank. This exposes most of them to unplanned pregnancies and diseases acquired through sexual intercourse.

Women in the military in the pasthave been deniedequal opportunities like the men. For instance, some of the educational programsare givenonly to men since they dominate theseniorranks.This makes ithardfor any woman to understand themanagementroles in the army.Additionally, womenlackequal protection and benefits. For example, troops deployed to Iraqwere characterizedbysexdiscrimination and sexual harassment. The women soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait lacked enoughprotectionfrom the senior officershencesome of themwere rapedand mishandled. Notably, most of the womenwere assignedduties outside their specialization involuntarily.

It isthereforeessential for those inauthoritytoaddressthe unfair treatment of women in the military.There is a need for both women and men serving the military to feelsecureandfindthemilitaryjob as a good job for both gendersas opposed to perceiving the military as a place of exciting injustice and unfairness.Since both the superiors and the sergeants carry out unfair treatment of women, there is the need to first weed out those inservicewho do not believe in equality. This is becauseit is difficult todoaway with aproblemby proposing policies butthere is no one to implement them. All the top officials in the military must be people who understand the law and abide by it. They should be people whoacknowledgethe importance ofequityto all. Therefore, there is a needtovetthose heading themilitarybefore proposing policies for implementation.

After having acleantopgovernance team, there is the importance of the law tooutlineon the rights of female soldiers andsubsequentchannels to follow in case their rightsare violated.The law also needs tooutlineon the protection rights of the female soldiers toeliminatecases of intimidation from the superiors.Weacknowledgethe role of the civil society in advocating for the rights of women. There is the need to protect the activists whoneedto seek clarity from the government on issues concerning the military.

From the study, it isevidentthat there are many issues pertaining women thatare requiredto be solved. The mostinfluentialand mosturgentissue to be solved is how to curb sexual harassment of women by their colleagues and superiors. There is the need to ensure that women feelsecurein their place of work and feel respected. The senior officers should develop and implement policies that wouldgovernthe relationship between women and male soldiers in the line of duty. Promotion of women to senior positions should be done on meritas opposed to the sexual favors that one gives to a senior officer. There is also the need for setting up acommissiontoinvestigateon theissues raisedby the women soldiers who served in Iraq and Kuwait.This is with a view to understand the reasons as to why such inhumane actswere committedand bring the culprits tofacethe rule of law.This will act as alessonto other senior military officers and sergeantshenceactcautiously and respect women in the future.It is alsobeneficialfor thecommissionset up to make recommendations for any need to adjust the law.

Thereis also the need for the militarycommanders to ensure that the policies governing themilitaryare adheredto at all times.For instance, if the law condemns the use of pornographic material, there is a need for allpeopleto abide by the law.There is also need for the senior officials torespectthe military laws and notviolatethem. For instance, military officers should practice in their areas of specialization unless there is an urgent need forchangeof duty. The top military officials should ensure thatpropermedicalattentionhas been accordedto all those in service of the army andinan affordable way. Cases of discrimination and denial of the right tospeechof women should be abolished.Lastly, recruitment toservein the army should befairand the number of women serving in the military should be increased andfairpromotions made in order tomotivatethe women.The terms for the promotions should not be sodifficultto achieve since it demoralizes the womenformstriving to work hard.

We canthereforeconclude thatgenerally, women have mistreated while serving the military and there is an urgent need tocorrectthetrendfor thebenefitof women andforthecountryin general.