Staff Writer

Policies prohibiting women in military combat have been eradicated and women’s rights advocacy groups are rejoicing. According to the Department of Defense approximately 237,000 positions are now available to women, which I honestly think it is about time. Women serving in combat units isn’t a new concept; women have held positions such as pilots, truck drivers and fuel suppliers. Now that the ban has been lifted women will be able to fight on the front lines alongside men.

It is ridiculous to think that one’s gender automatically determines their strengths and weaknesses. “It’s like women firefighters, women were barred from fire fighting because they didn’t think they could carry things like fire hoses or people and of course doing an enormous amount of training they can perform just as well as a man,” said CSUB communications professor Judith Pratt. What the media is referring to as the brass ceiling, has prevented women the same opportunities for promotion as men in the military. CSUB senior psychology major and E5 Sgt. Garada Simmons served in the military for eight years and explained that if she would have been given the opportunity to excel in the military she would have made a career of it.

“The main reason why I got out was because the higher you rank as a male the more respect and the more ‘pat on the backs’ you get. But the more you rank as a female, the more speculation, the more rumors, and the politics play into it and I got tired of that,” said Simmons.

Looking at it individually I am sure there are some women who don’t belong in combat, but at the same time there are men who shouldn’t be on the front lines as well.

According to a CNN report, author of “Co-Ed Combat” Kingsley Browne argued that now the military will have to reduce the physical criterion for females to contend due to the “very little overlap in physical capacity between men and women.”

My question is, if a woman does not meet the standards why would she be in the military in the first place? Lowering the standards would do nothing more than weaken combat units. If a woman wants to fight alongside men then she should be given the chance to show that she is as strong and as fast as a man.

CSUB senior criminal justice major and Spc. E-4 Steven Taylor doesn’t agree with allowing all women into combat but said that women’s training should be more rigorous if they are going to be in combat.

“In order for them to be given a chance, in my opinion, they should have to go through even harder training because of the fact that they are women,” said Taylor. Military combat should not be about gender. It should be about individual ability to perform the task. Female soldiers aren’t asking for a hand out, they are asking for opportunities and equality.

As Simmons said, “A soldier’s a soldier, regardless if they have a ponytail or not.”