Women in combat is an extremely divided issue.

The problem is clouded by a chain of command, public opinion, and especially sexist ideas from both sides. The military is clinging to its old roots while politians attempt to calm the masses with appealing laws allowing women to fight. Equality is something everyone should enjoy, but is it going to far when it puts others at a disadvantage when the outcome of a battle is not hurt feelings, but rather lost lives. Women are already a critical and established part of the military, however their current roles are defined as support only, non-combat related. Stories of women leading the charge in recent years have been popping up as the lines of traditional warfare have been crossed and twisted in the modern fight against insurgents and undefined enemies. A platoon of infantry men is more often in the midst of battle then a fuel truck convoy, however its not a rare or unrealistic occurrence to see a fuel truck being assaulted by IEDS(improvised explosive device) or even insurgents themselves. This collection of articles are condensed looking at the implications and impacts of introducing women into the fabric of combat arms units such as armor, infantry and artillery. It will not look at the ability of women to work within the established military, however it will use study information if the contents of which give a glimpse into how men and women interact, mainly sexual harassment and misconduct. An important term to understand is, PTSD- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, this is a result of being in combat situations and/or traumatic events, including gunfights and even sexual assault. The main concern when looking through this data is

the sexism that clouds much of the data, and the unwillingness of women to report sexual misconduct due to fear and embarrassment. Overall this is a look at how men and women compare when pushed into combat, and if the rewards of having women in the fight vs. the consequences of having integrated units.

Gill, R; Febbraro. Experiences and Perceptions of Sexual Harassment in the Canadian Forces Combat Arms. AR. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN; FEB, 2013. Ritu Gill and Angela Febbraro from Defense R&D Canada, combine to examine the recent trend in sexual harassment of women in Canadian Armed forces. In this study they received responses and interviews from 26 women in the Canadian combat arms. Of the twenty six women only 6 replied as being sexually harassed and none sexually assaulted, a much lower rate than previous studies conducted in years past. They attribute the decrease in sexual harassment to several factors including zero-tolerance policies and anti-harassment policies. They also claim that the recent drop could be caused by the fear women have to reporting sexual harassment and the potential unit repercussions they could experience as fallout from filing a complaint. This is relevant in that it shows that while sexual harassment can be contained, it can also be swept under the rug and lead to unit conflicts if reported and if not reported.

Gutierrez, Peter M.; Brenner, Lisa A.; Rings, Jeffrey A.; Devore, Maria D.; Kelly, Patricia J.; Staves, Pamela J.; Kelly, Caroline M.; Kaplan, Mark S.A Qualitative Description of Female

Veterans' Deployment-Related Experiences and Potential Suicide Risk Factors. Journal of Clinical Psychology. Sep2013, Vol. 69 Issue 9, p923-935. 13p. Peter Gutierrez from University of Colorado and Lisa Brenner from the Department of Veterans Affairs work together in a qualitative study of women veterans concerning their experiences in combat and the potential suicide implications. In the study 19 women, all deployed to combat areas in Afghanistan where interviewed, there transcripts where collected and examined to draw conclusions. Every woman interviewed in the study reported they felt they were prematurely judged and/or conclusions based on them being women. Of the 19 women interviewed 5 of them reported thinking about suicide as an option for dealing with the stress of combat. This study is important because it shows that however much discrimination is frowned upon, every female in the armed services feels their abilities doubted and underestimated.

Kline, Anna; Ciccone, Donald S.; Weiner, Marc; Interian, Alejandro; St. Hill, Lauren; FalcaDodson, Maria; Black, Christopher M.; Losonczy, Miklos. Gender Differences in the Risk and Protective Factors Associated With PTSD: A Prospective Study of National Guard Troops Deployed to Iraq. Psychiatry: Interpersonal & Biological Processes, 2013 Fall. Anna Kline Ph. D and Alejandro Interian Ph.D look into the female ability to merge into the unit and form an effective non gender specific unit. Random samples from a New Jersey base from soldiers returning from a deployment. Soldiers where not only told to self-report but also give a peer evaluation of their comrades without telling them to

look at gender. The results concluded that women where scored consistently lower when it came to unit cohesion (both by themselves and peers) and overall deployment preparedness. This comes as little surprise considering women returning from combat generally hold a lower opinion of their duties compared to men. This study shows the general trend among men, but does not rule out traditional stereotypes as the cause of lower scores.

Maguen, S; Luxton, DD; Skopp, NA; Madden, E. Gender differences in traumatic experiences and mental health in active duty soldiers redeployed from Iraq and Afghanistan. JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH; MAR, 2012. Shira Maguen VA medical Center, David Luxton and Nancy Skopp from the National Center for Telehealth and Technology work together to analyze the differences in gender pre and postdeployment. 7251 men and 544 women where survived, various yes/no questions were asked to access exposure to what is considered a traumatic military even(killing/injury) in addition to combat experience questions depression and ptsd questions were asked to analyze the effect of the deployment as a whole. This study placed focus on the symptoms of taking combat harshly; alcohol, PTSD, and Depression. 17% of men reported drinking alcohol, while only 5% of women responded in the same measure. On average ptsd and depression was identical among women and men. However women and men experience on the battle field is much different. 7% of women were injured while 14% of males were injured. 31% percent of females were exposed to some form of

death where 66% of men were exposed. 9% of women witnessed a killing while 45% of men witnessed a killing. 4% of women killed while 36% of men killed while deployed. This is extremely relevant data in that it shows that both men and women have almost identical problems leaving deployments statistically but while deployed men experience traumatic events anywhere from 200% more often on the lower end of traumatic events (injury) to 900% on the higher end (killing). These results reaffirm women experience combat less and take traumatic events more harshly than men.

Matthews, Michael D.; Ender, Morten G.; Laurence, Janice H.; Rohall, David E. Role of Group Affiliation and Gender on Attitudes Toward Women in the Military. Military Psychology (Taylor & Francis Ltd). Apr-Jun2009, Vol. 21 Issue 2. Michael Matthews and Morten Ender from the Behavioral Department at West Point join with Janice Laurence and David Rohall from Western Illinois University to look at attitudes toward gender in the population when considering military roles. Participation focused on freshman in Rotc and civilian backgrounds attending colleges nationwide. Participants were asked to approve or disapprove of women in various military roles. A point was given per each role approved of so a maximum approval score would be a 9 and a minimum would be a 0. As a whole cadets where much less approving of women in military both from a male and female view, males cadets gave a score of 5.96 out of 9 and female cadets a score of 7.56. However civilians approved at a rate of 6.96 for men and 8.16 for women. The most controversial area of this study the front line troop approval rating showed

significant differences in opinion. Only 10% of male cadets and 32% of female cadets approved of women in combat while 43% of male civilians and 67% of women civilians approved of the concept. This tells us two very important things. Military personnel male and female approve of women in combat less than civilians, and that male civilians still hold women in higher regard then women cadets. This can be interrupted as overriding the sexist views that plague this issue. As a whole this study shores up some of the holes created by sexist tendencies of males and feminist tendencies of females.

Mattocks, KM; Haskell, SG; Krebs, EE; Justice, AC; Yano, EM; Brandt, Women at war: Understanding how women veterans cope with combat and military sexual trauma. C. SOCIAL SCIENCE& MEDICINE; FEB, 2012. Kristin Mattocks, Sally Haskell, and Erin Krebs from the department of Veterans affairs report on how women cope with combat and military sexual trauma. There method for collection was a qualitative collection, it branches too many different studies and primarily dealt with the psychologists and doctors who help rehabilitate these women who experienced trauma. They found that women slip into isolation more often than men when returning from combat. Another thing noted was the feeling of insignificance women felt when returning, society often minimalized womens contributions and as a result women felt as though they did less then they actually did. Another overwhelming theme was women felt as though the VA was not something they deserved to take advantage of, probably a result of

minimization of their actions overseas. This study showed a non-statistical approach and as a result gave much different feedback into the perspectives of women in combat.

Sternke, LM. . Measurement of Military Combat Exposure Among Women: Analysis and Implications. WOMENS HEALTH ISSUES; JUL-AUG, 2011. Lisa Marie Sternke from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Ralph Johnson from the VA Medical Center write about how measurements of combat expose grossly under value the medical concerns of women. This scholarly article looks at the results and collection data from solider analysis after Vietnam, focusing on the female demographic in the data. The modern method for analyzing combat exposure has further developed and changed to fit todays warfare, however soldiers analyzed from Vietnam had barely to no representation from women, as a result many women had no representation. As this pertains to todays army it shows how the general trend of military forces has been to seclude women from both soldierly duties, but also from any help their male counterparts may be enjoying.

Street, AE; Gradus, JL; Giasson, HL; Vogt, D; Resick, Gender Differences Among Veterans Deployed in Support of the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. PA. JOURNAL OF GENERAL INTERNAL MEDICINE; JUL, 2013; 28. Amy Street focuses on the post deployment adjustments of women and men in everyday life. The study consisted of a national mail survey of Veterans randomly sampled. The survey asked for self-reporting of

deployment stressors, PTSD and depression to gauge how each individual was coping. They found that women tended to experience less on the field combat exposure and tended to have more interpersonal stressors such as perception of sexual harassment and general gender issues that arise from integrated units. They also reported that their where no significant differences between male and females ability to readjust after deployment.

Tarrasch, Ricardo; Lurie, Orit; Yanovich, Ran; Moran, Dan. Psychological aspects of the integration of women into combat roles. Personality& Individual Differences. Jan2011, Vol. 50 Issue 2. Richardi Tarrasch from Tel Aviv University in Israel and Orit Lurie the surgeon General of the Israeli Air Force combine in this article. 450 Israeli soldiers (80 men and 370 women) answered questions three times during their basic training, before, during, and after. 22 questions in a simple 5 point stress scale where asked, 1 being no stress and 5 being as stressed as possible. Along with these questions participants were graded on an additional 49 question hardiness scale in order to determine resiliency to stress. This elaborate testing brought forth interesting results, on average men handled stress better than women, however women training for combat enjoyed a better stress level then women who were training for non-combat roles at first. After their basic training had been concluded the women who were trained for combat had a higher stress level and where less capable of handling stress then both their male contra parts and non-combat trained women indicating that women in

combat where burning out at a higher rate. Sex-role type was also analyzed and showed women in combat roles where significantly more masculine then non-combat women (200% more masculine on average). This is probably one of the most comprehensive studies to date and is often referenced by other articles in the community to draw standards and references, the one knock on the study is the lack of a non-combat man category to further differentiate the results but as a whole this is accepted as the standard for gender in combat studies.

Vogt, Dawne Vaughn, Rachel Glickman, Mark E. Schultz, Mark Drainoni, Mari-Lynn Elwy, Rani Eisen, Susan. Gender differences in combat-related stressors and their association with postdeployment mental health in a nationally representative sample of U.S. OEF/OIF veterans. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol 120(4). This article was a joint effort between several authors from the National Center for PTSD (Boston University) as well as contributions from Memorial Veterans Hospital. Spear heading the article is Dawne Vogt, Rachel Vaughn, and Mark Glickman. 592 military personal from operation enduring freedom and operation Iraqi freedom were polled, 340 of which where women and 252 men. Several questions were asked from combat experience to sexual harassment exposure. Participants were asked to rate from 1-5 on the scale 1(never) 5(always). Along with these basic experience based questions a post-traumatic stress symptomatology survey was asked in order to gage the overall mental effect of the total deployment. The results found that women on average experience combat situations

less than men, but on average women who do experience it are not as effected as men in reference to ptsd. Immediately it must be noted that men during the time of the study men where the only participants in direct combat so the numbers should indicate that men experience much more combat then women but according to the findings 21% of women reported being in combat opposed to 25% of men reporting being in combat. This number should be greatly higher for men and indicates there is a major gap between men and womens perception of what combat is. Another potential problem with this survey is the disregard for intensity of combat. A pot shot fired from half a mile away is classified as combat as much as a fifty man firefight in a tight street led by a infantry platoon. Those who are in the midst of heavy combat should experience more symptoms then those who are not in as much direct harm. Overall this fits the data collection indicating that men required much more stimulus to qualify themselves as combat participants and despite being the only gender in hard combat roles currently, they were similarly effected in respect to ptsd as women.

Wilcox, Clyde. Race, Gender, and Support for Women in the Military. Social Science Quarterly (University of Texas Press). Jun92, Vol. 73 Issue 2. Clyde Wilcox from the University from Texas looks for the possible limitations of women in combat roles and how the general population viewed women in combat in 1992. He gathered a base sample over two thousand people, both civilian and military. After getting base demographic information he then asked them questions examining opinions on women

in tradition military roles, then the same questions on non-traditional roles of women, such as combat. Interestingly this is the first, and only study I have examined in which the support for women in the military doing combat roles was higher in the military then in the civilian population. However the approval rates are much lower then what we have currently (below 30% in both civilian and military in this study.) This shows that woman approval rating has increased in the total population, however the military still holds a low opinion of women in combat.

Woodhead, C; Wessely, S; Jones, N; Fear, NT; Hatch, SL. Impact of exposure to combat during deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan on mental health by gender. PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE; SEP, 2012. C. Woodhead, S. Wessely, and N. Jones from Kings College London, UK write about the impact of combat on mental health focusing on gender. They asked various questions in which participants of the study where told to respond to questions addressing how much combat they experienced, and how they handled this exposure. This study concluded men and women both experience dramatic events in deployment, however men experience them at a much higher rate and are less likely to develop ptsd. It was found however men are more prone to alcohol abuse post deployment.

Wooten, Nikki R.

Deployment Cycle Stressors and Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms

in Army National Guard Women: The Mediating Effect of Resilience. Social Work in

Health Care. Oct2012, Vol. 51 Issue 9. Nikki Wooten PhD examines resilience to stress, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and deployment stress in women in the National Guard. 135 women in the National Guard where contacted and participated in this mailed in survey. Women were given a test to examine their pre-deployment stress levels (normal test examining how pre disposed to being reactive to stressors) then given a military stress level indicator (only military factors were examined). After general information was gathered women where then asked to rate their amount of combat experienced, and along with that there perceived threat from the actions occurring. The results of the study showed as expected that women who came into combat situations with pre disposed stress where much more likely to develop combat associated problems such as ptsd. This study was very vague and did not include a control group of men to compare to, but it did demonstrate that within each person combat is perceived differently depending on conditions already present.

Yanovich, R; Evans, R; Israeli, E; Constantini, N; Sharvit, N; Merkel, D; Epstein, Y; Moran, DS. Differences in Physical Fitness of Male and Female Recruits in Gender-Integrated Army Basic Training. MEDICINE AND SCIENCE IN SPORTS AND EXERCISE. Ran Yanovich from Heller Institute of Medical Research, Israel, Rachel Evans from the US Army Research institute of Environmental Medicine, and Eran Israeli from the UniversityHadassah Medical Center, Israel look into the differences in Male and Female recruits physically. 109 females and 28 males where tested before and after completing identical

basic training with various physical tests. As expected the males entered with higher weight, lower fat, and overall better in every physical category besides abdominal strength (the gap is relatively small). After the basic training course was completed women narrowed the gap in every category of physical performance by 4% but still trailed the men by a large margin. Only females in the top 90 percentile of their class overlapped the bottom 10 percentile of males in a 2km run. With reference to strength only 25% of the female sample surpassed the bottom 5% of males in anaerobic strength. An interesting finding in this study was an apparent lack of development in men in a mixed gender training situation. When men were placed in gender specific training environments there scores increased dramatically, however when in an integrated training environment they on average regressed. This finding is critical when considering the implication of gender integrated units.

Young, Lauren M. Nauta, Margaret M.Sexism as a predictor of attitudes toward women in the military and in combat. ; Military Psychology, Vol 25(2), Mar, 2013. This article is based on Lauren M. Youngs master thesis under the direction of Margaret M Nauta. Both authors belong to the Department of Psychology at Illinois State University. The method for this study was a anonymous e-mail surveying 316 students from a medium sized public University in the Midwest. Of those sampled 58% were between the age of 18-22, and 415 were 23 or older. 33% were male, 67% were female. 80% civilian, 20% current or former military personal. Various number scales were asked referencing

various combat roles. The findings found non-military personnel approved of women in combat ay a much higher rate than military affiliated personnel. This is relevant to the discussion indicating the general flow of public opinion opposed to on the ground/those effected by proposed changes. Potential flaws in this data is the focus on University students from one institution. This sampling also receiving a vast majority of females participating, skewing potential results.