Women's Sufferance in Military Conflicts - Essay Example

Do women always suffer worst in conflict and war and why Do women always suffer worst in conflict and war and why d: __________________ By: _______________________ Sufferance in wars and routine conflicts is not new. Feminists argue that since first and Second World War women lie in between traditional gender images and new expectations which required women to replace the men, not just in the wartime economy but also by assuming responsibility for the livelihood and survival of their families immediately after war. Despite the great progress, which the women's movement has made in various wars, and even today where women in every aspect of life are no less powerful than men, they are confronted to sufferings in every form. Suffering, as a housewife is the best example of women's vulnerability and dependency, where a woman manages to organise all the housework. The most amazing thing is that women while performing her duties and entering the work force are not utilising those wages into less housework at home, either by buying sufficient substitute products or labour, or by getting their husbands to do appreciably more housework at home. (Hartmann 1987, p. 120). Throughout the war years the power of the state ministries to direct the public domains of production and defence increased. Simultaneously, their powers to control activities in the private sphere and in civilian society were strengthened. Throughout these years there was an obvious reliance on women. Women were targeted as responsible for reproducing domesticity under restricted and often perilous conditions. Women while helding responsible were charged for increasing production levels. For both single and married women, the war presented a personal challenge on different levels. For married women it may have presented their first experience of managing the family finances, while balancing this with other domestic responsibilities. (Goodman, 2002, p. 101) Either in the form of military, soldiers or victims in wars, it is the 'women' who suffers. The essay is being divided into two parts: Women as soldiers and women as victims. Women as Soldiers Undoubtedly, the cultural system of the military has always given precedence to the officer husband's work while it has simultaneously devalued the domestic worth of the officer's wife. Yet, the wife's job is still important and public. The military wife has deployed a very carefully constructed public role. She has volunteered on base, attended military functions with her husband, and catered military functions at her home. Her presence (or absence) is carefully noted by her husband's superiors and their wives. She must put the needs of her officer husband, and thereby the needs of the military, above her own needs. By carefully shaping gender roles and the expectations for wives' service, the military has been able to control wives' public roles. (Weinstein & White, 1997, p. 14) If we talk about women in U.S military, they were encouraged to serve the government who emphasised the need to relieve men in support positions to take part in direct combat. American women had always been employed by the army as civilian nurses, clerks, laundresses, and telephone operators. Moore (2003) writes, "Unlike white male immigrants, however, women were not offered citizenship rights in exchange. Moreover, they were not eligible to use military facilities, to receive government life insurance, or to be awarded military burial if killed while performing military service". (Moore, 2003, p. 3) Women in First World War were actively supported by the middle-class women's movement organised under the umbrella of the Federation of German's Women's Associations (BDF), and by the Social Democratic labour movement. At first, the National Women's Service (NWS) concentrated on helping to organise wartime nursing care, food supplies and relief for the family of soldiers and for those made jobless by war. Soon, women widened its scope and became active in child and youth welfare, protection for infants and new mothers and homeless relief. The declared hope was that women would be given the vote in recognition of their achievements on the home front but women were explicitly excluded from this law. Female soldiers face separate and unique threats from military medicines. Smallpox vaccinations are clearly not to be given to pregnant soldiers, while use of anthrax vaccine on expectant moms is, militarily anyway, up for debate. The Army and Navy, for example, are at odds over the risks. A 2002 Navy study "identified a possible relationship between maternal anthrax vaccination in the first trimester and higher odds of birth defects," according to a summary of the findings. (Anderson, 2004, p. 56) Nonetheless, keep in mind that massive human injection programs are not controlled studies that determine the true efficacy of a medicine. 'Anthrax' vaccine is neither recommended nor licensed for use during pregnancy and female soldiers irrespective of the awareness that they are pregnant and were not vaccinated this way, even without informing them. However, material deprivation and chronic shortages were not the only difficulties that women faced. Throughout the period, concerns were expressed about women's behaviour and personal morality. Another issue which has always created tension and confusion among war and conflicts is 'sexuality'. War, no doubt has constructed weak limitations around public and private settings. The traditional constraints and controls over behaviour were threatened as women negotiated these spaces. (Lefebvre, 1991, p. 25) Patriotic feminine identities and custom personalities had to be reconstructed in order to allow women to cope up with the changing needs of the war economy as history reveals that the common sense fundamental assumptions and maintaining the sexual splitting up of labour were being threatened. The loss of the normal social controls of men, family and community were associated with anxieties about women's moral values. In March 1940 Mass Observation documented the double standards, in broad masculine terms: 'I do think that evacuation has upset family life. I find that the men are unfaithful and, of course, they lose control of the family.' (Goodman, 2002, p. 3) In the increasing military demand, relationship trauma extends to the barracks too, of course. In one of the Department of Defence's most important military sex-and-violence studies, in 2003, researchers found that out of 556 women interviewed, 30 percent were either raped or victims of an attempted rape while in the military. In 2004, an Air Force study of personnel in the Pacific turned up 92 accusations of rape between 2001 and 2003. Similarly, female soldiers stationed in the Gulf, along with others troops returning home, began to reveal past assaults by male soldiers. The Department of Defence in February 2004 said it had logged 106 reports of sexual assaults of troops deployed in the Middle East over the previous 14 months. At least three dozen sought sexual-trauma counselling and other assistance. Victims claim they received poor medical treatment, and some said they were threatened with punishment after reporting the assaults. (Chesterman, 2001, p. 36) A Fort Lewis solider who said she was raped in Iraq also later attempted to commit suicide. Her mother, Barbara Wharton, told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee in 2004 that her daughter awoke stripped, bound and gagged, and that doctors had confirmed she'd been raped. (Barbara, 2004) Chesterman (2001) writes, "The war duration was depicting a clear reorganisation of spatial practices and the gendered representation of space. In the absence of British men, it was feared that women would be found in previously defined male spaces. There was an imperative to re-establish sexual segregation, gender difference and order" (Chesterman, 2001, p. 125). It became critical to maintain women as 'other' in the face of the challenges brought about by women working in environments traditionally perceived and produced as male. Women successfully performing masculine functions cannot be read as 'Other' unless, as Margaret and Patrice Higonnet argue, 'the radical changes entailed in mobilisation and demobilisation may be symbolically limited by a rhetorical continuity that stresses the subordination of woman to the family'. (Higonnet & Higonnet, 1987, p. 38) It is not so that women were allowed to involve in frontline activities during war easily, the reason were the issues surrounding women's involvement in military combat which raised a number of competing concerns of vital importance like the integrity of national security and defence capability; gender equality and justice; and family and citizenship responsibilities. Women as Victims War posed an implicit threat to the maintenance of the normal boundaries of gendered space as the reorganisation of social life challenged established gender relations. Women's morality became an issue in public discourse because it connected to fears surrounding change in spatial organisation, male morale and post-war relations. The fracturing of space and the creation of new spaces that women were colonising were complicated by the arrival of the Allied troops in Britain. From early 1942 Allied servicemen began to arrive in Britain and, over the next three years, several million Allied troops passed through Britain en route to other battlefields or to man supply bases in this country. (Longmate, 1975, p. 472) The women as soldiers experienced worst in the context of gendered political violence. Women equally, living in military camps, being sexually abused by soldiers; being a victim of antipersonnel land mines, and witnessing the killing of family members depicts a traumatic picture. Large numbers of children were abducted and forced to live in military camps. They were used as domestic workers, cooks, water and firewood searchers and carriers, and sexual partners to soldiers. (Chesterman, 2001, p. 129) The hardships endured by young girls who were not exposed to arms and weapons, is often referred to only in the margins. Wars are generally portrayed as an essentially 'male affair' executed and endured by men. Very little is usually said about the role female soldiers' play, as combatants, cooks, and domestic workers, and the sexual abuse they often suffer. Between April 7 and the end of June, 1994, hundreds of civilians in Rwanda sought refuge at the bureau communal. These civilian homeless women (Tutsi) while seeking refuge at the bureau communal, were regularly abused and tortured by armed local militia, communal police thereby subjected to sexual violence, gang raped and beaten. (Chesterman, 2001, p. 129) Women victims were also murdered frequently on or near the bureau communal premises and were escorted by forced multiple acts of sexual violence, which were at times committed by more than one soldier. Such acts of assault and violence were escorted by threats of death and physical abuse and lead females towards psychological disorder of constant fear and their physical health deteriorated as a result of the sexual violence, beatings and killings. (Chesterman, 2001, p. 170) Indeed, according to a critical observer, feminist studies of the military considered prejudiced because of its view from outside historians. From that discipline it is often regard as male bonding of warriors and soldiers as diabolical, presenting it as a 'threatening horde' and interpreting male 'comradeship' as 'solidarity against women, against whom they had to protect themselves'. It is, of course, not the point to dismiss the fact that these images and findings can help to establish central psychological structures and cultural concepts that had a devastating effect during the Nazi war. It is also beyond question that in every culture the institution of male bonding fulfilled an important role regarding carrying out and maintaining male supremacy and that, together with military initiation, a society dominated by male bonding has been (and still is) practiced. (Hageman & Springorum, 2002, p. 235) The defeated enemy, unfit and unwilling for battle no matter whether this was the actual case or just supposed was (and is) being looked at as 'effeminate'. A significant part of certain rituals of initiation and degradation was (and is) that recruits had (and have) to carry out feminine-connoted acts. Thereby, they were (and are) reduced to their mere body and thus to the status of an object which is usually reserved for women. Not least do 'women', i.e. male representations of women in the sexist discourses of the entertainment industry, serve to enhance masculinity symbolically. In the context of binary gender codes, femininity as it is imagined by men demarcates a distance from 'actual', 'true' and at least 'hegemonic' masculinity. The latter is defined through bodily strength, preparedness to take risks, emotional hardness and undoubted heterosexuality. But the importance of imagined femininity for military discourses on masculinities during the century of total wars is thoroughly underestimated, if it is only seen as a counterpart of 'true' masculinity. Imagined femininity, in particular within the symbolic order of the military, is nurtured by its ambivalence. Again, reference can be made to the representative of nationalist war memory quoted at the beginning: Schauwecker dissociated his understanding of 'womanly' comradeship from 'male' violence, yet according to his psychology the real man should integrate both. (Hageman & Springorum, 2002, p. 236) The contribution that these women pilots made represented a radical challenge to gender ideology, gender relations and the status quo. These determined and very often privileged women were struggling to achieve self-determination, and were intent on shaking off definitions of femininity as passive. In order to achieve their ambition they first had to obtain a pilot's licence at their own expense. Women with 600 hours' flying experience (for men the qualification was 300 hours) were allowed to fly Tiger Moths then, as demand and output increased, they progressed to Spitfires and Hurricanes and eventually to Lancaster bombers. (Kay, 1993) Women might have been flying planes but, to preserve cultural stereotypes of the distinctions between masculinity and femininity, women could only transport the planes to strategic locations; they could not take part in active missions. Women pilots were prohibited from firing guns. Women serve and nurture in their gender-appropriate space; they don't fight and kill on the male battlefield whether at home or abroad, on the ground or in the air. Despite the contribution that women made in supporting the military, there was profound resistance to women adopting the role of aggressor as a defensive measure on the home front. This prejudice was clearly exhibited in the refusal to allow women to join the local Defence Volunteers latterly the Home Guard. The refusal was justified with the somewhat irrational argument that the Home Guard was trained to use weapons to prevent conscientious objectors using membership to avoid active service. Women could not be trained to use weapons so they could not join. The exclusion of women represented a form of state containment intent on keeping them out of a very public military space. (Goodman, 2002, p. 81) Ideologically, women were used to symbolise the nation as a loved woman in need of protection. In reality women have a long history of giving practical support to the military machine. Women have suffered exploitation as camp followers, prostitutes, wives, nurses and defence industry workers whilst dominant gender ideology denies images of women serving in the public domain, on the front line. Women did not perform masculine roles such as soldiering. For if women participated in such roles it would challenge the myth that men are naturally warlike whilst women are peacemakers. However, during the Second World War this distinction was difficult to maintain. There were challenges to the polarity of masculinity/femininity mirrored in the dualisms of battleground/home front, foreign/local imagery that historically maintain gender difference. (Goodman, 2002, p. 75) Case Study - Bosnia The two interrelated atrocities that became the hallmarks of the conflict in Bosnia were ethnic cleansing and the systematic rape of women. Women were abruptly subjected to torture and were often forced into flight, while men were rounded up and executed or sent to camps. Rape contributed to this process by tainting the ethnic purity of the women raped and instilling fear within the community, encouraging them to flee. No doubt the sexual violence against women has been widely reported throughout the wars but still much less is known about the rape and sexual assault. The demographic, social, psychological, and physical chaos caused by this strategy of ethnic cleansing and organised rape is the most horrifying and enduring legacy of the war. (Kumar, 2001, p. 58) This is certainly true in Bosnia, where class, ethnicity, and residential status are key elements in determining a woman's position and have proved to be a source of conflict between women and women's organisations. The following sections address the salient effects of the conflict and their gender implications, drawing out areas of such conflict. Conflict creates a confusing and contradictory dynamic in which gender identities are reified and polarised while at the same time women's roles are expanded into male-dominated arenas. Often, there lies the essentialist notion of men as warriors and women as victims and moral guardians of the community. Women were also confronted to barriers in employment after war, which is revealed through data that indicate widespread direct and indirect discrimination. One study shows that women, particularly women in households, have lower employment rates than men. (CIET) Usually women were employed and received wages 20 to 50 percent lower than their male partners. At the same time ex-soldiers were found to have the lowest unemployment rates and the highest wages. An Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe human rights report on employment discrimination found that among cases reported, gender discrimination was linked to prioritised employment for demobilised soldiers, the majority of whom are male. (Kumar, 2001, p. 61) The dire economic and employment situation also has resulted in women turning to sex in various ways. A recent reporter's study on prostitution and trafficking suggests prostitution may be widespread. Displaced women were common victims of organised prostitution. Although there was no bar to women owning property, women are less likely to have legal title to property than men. According to the Prism survey, 25 percent of respondents had tenancy rights to a socially owned flat, and only 3.5 percent to private property. (Kumar, 2001, p. 62) References Anderson Rick, (2004) Home Front: The Government's War on Soldiers: Clarity Press: Atlanta. Barbara Wharton, testimony, Senate Armed Services subcommittee, Feb. 25, 2004 Chesterman Simon, (2001) Civilians in War: Lynne Rienner: Boulder, CO. CIET Vulnerability Study in World Bank, Bosnia and Herzegovina- Priority Reconstruction Program, p. 16 Goodman Philomena, (2002) Women, Sexuality and War: Palgrave: New York. Hagemann Karen & Springorum Stefanie, (2002) Home/Front: The Military, War, and Gender in Twentieth-Century Germany: Berg: New York. Hartmann, 1987, p. 120 In: Goodman Philomena, (2002) Women, Sexuality and War: Palgrave: New York. Higonnet, M. R. and Higonnet, P. R. (1987) 'The Double Helix', in Higonnet, Jensen, Michel and Weitz. Kay, A. (1993) 'Wythenshawe Circa 1932-1955, The Making of a Community' unpublished PhD thesis (Manchester): Manchester Victoria University. Kumar Krishna, (2001) Women and Civil War: Impact, Organizations, and Action: Lynne Rienner: Boulder, CO. Lefebvre, H. The Production of Space (London: Basil Blackwell, 1991) Longmate, N. The G.I.'s. The Americans in Britain 1942-1945 (London: Hutchinson, 1975). Moore L. Brenda, (2003) Serving Our Country: Japanese American Women in the Military during World War II: Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, NJ. Ruth Seifert, 'Feministische Theorie und Militrsoziologie,' Das Argument, no. 190 (1991): 861-873, 862 White C. Christie & Weinstein Laurie, (1997) Wives and Warriors: Women and the Military in the United States and Canada: Bergin & Garvey: Westport, CT. Read More