Australia: Right to fight - Women on the front line in five years

Submitted by Broadsword on Tue, 2011-09-27 03:18

Article here. Excerpt:

'WOMEN will be able to serve in any frontline combat role within five years after a historic change by the Government. Federal Defence Minister Stephen Smith said cabinet approved the change during a meeting yesterday.

"This is a change which has the strong support from the chief of the defence force," he said today.

Currently 93 per cent of Australian Defence Force (ADF) positions were open to women.

The other seven per cent excluded women "simply on the basis of sex", Mr Smith said.

These included jobs such as mine disposal divers, air force defence guards and infantry and artillery frontline positions.

These jobs make up 17 per cent of employment opportunities in the ADF.

Mr Smith said the discrimination would be removed over five years in a "careful and methodical" way.

The first implementation report would go to the Government in the first quarter of 2012.

Once women are allowed to serve in all areas, Australia would fully meet its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Mr Smith said.'

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Comments

... there's a CEDAW and not a CEDAM? Oh yeah, that's right, men face no discrimination issues on a governmental level. Except of course... the draft, Title IX, access to public benefits like housing subsidies, health care, etc...

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Submitted by Matt on Tue, 2011-09-27 12:02

If the military stays efficient and same quality of service then this is great news. However if the quality and efficiency of the military goes down then it is bad news. I am taking a 'wait and see' attitude.

It is not only a concern about how your own soldiers will react to the females, but also how your enemy's soldiers will react. I don't want to see military weakened or lives in more danger because of the presence of female soldiers.

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Submitted by Kris on Tue, 2011-09-27 18:06

I don't favor women in combat because I don't think they'll be able to carry their weight. They will make combat units less efficient, resulting in more deaths and injuries. Men shouldn't risk their lives for a feminist experiment in which we pretend women can do things they can't.

That said, I also weary of men risking their lives in war only to come home and be arrested for failure to pay child support because they couldn't find a civilian job. It makes no sense for men to fight for a system that treats them unfairly.

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Submitted by el cid on Wed, 2011-09-28 00:39

Feminists want women to serve in combat but I suspect the vast majority of women could care less. A small percentage of women have appointed themselves the leader of all women. Its never been about women, its all about what feminists want. Sure, they'll say they're 'advocating' for women but its obvious they're telling them what to do and how to think. We need to differentiate between women and feminism -- they're not the same.

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Submitted by anthony on Wed, 2011-09-28 02:48

Men have fought wars for millenia. Maybe women should be the ONLY group on the front lines. Call it reparations.

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Submitted by ItsDan on Wed, 2011-09-28 22:19

I, for one, am all in favor of putting women on the front lines so long as training and expectations of performance are held the same for both genders. One of my main issues with female privilege is that men take the vast majority (if not all) of the responsibility for defense of country while women reap the majority of the benefits. If an actual level of equality is to be reached, both genders must take responsibility for the security of their country.

Alas, I fear the outcome of this will be the same as it has always been, with women pulled out when the fire gets too heavy thus causing disarray in the fighting line and, as you mentioned, causing more deaths and injuries. But on the off chance that the expectations are held to be the same we may see a small shift in the attitudes of at least those women who fought beside those men- and it's a start.

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Submitted by mightywombat1 on Thu, 2011-09-29 12:45

" Alas, I fear the outcome of this will be the same as it has always been, with women pulled out when the fire gets too heavy"

Of course but this is a BIG step in the right direction.

My perspective is that the burden should be shared and having more women means needing less men.

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Submitted by fondueguy on Thu, 2011-09-29 18:37