Military

A key element in the construction of gender identity throughout U.S. history has been the almost exclusive male monopoly on the role of warrior and soldier. This role grew from a belief in superior male physical strength, stamina, and courage that has deep roots in Western civilization. The forces that originally defined American culture established a strong tie between masculinity and military service in time of war and conflict.

Throughout American military history, government leaders and the military establishment have used this traditional notion of gender identity and obligations of male citizenship to persuade men to join the armed services and participate in the country's defense in wartime. This process has drawn large numbers of young men into uniform with minimal formal coercion. It has helped to glorify behaviors that encourage a high level of combat effectiveness, such as loyalty to comrades and a willingness to face danger, and it has reinforced accepted gender roles in the wider society that portray men as warriors and protectors and women as supporters and nurturers.

Europeans colonizing North America brought with them the perception, reinforced by medieval concepts of chivalry, that men had the duty of protecting women from outside invasions or internal uprisings. During the Revolutionary War and in the early days of the republic, concepts of male identity that emphasized obligations to fight to guard family and community and to resist tyranny and centralized authority became more pronounced. The republican ideals embodied in the American Revolution stimulated an aversion to large professional armies and a belief in the male citizen soldier who served in local militia forces out of a civic obligation to protect the democratic values of the republic. The values and standards of the predominately small town and rural communities from which these men came shaped their male identities and strengthened the cohesiveness, discipline, and combat effectiveness of the militia units to which they belonged.

The American military experience in nineteenth-century wars, particularly the Civil War, strengthened the notion that military service was the preserve of men. In the conscript armies of World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, the military authorities continued to manipulate these gender roles and symbols, placing an added emphasis on the individual soldier's loyalty to his primary unit (squad, platoon, or company). This imbedding of men's identity through linkage to the warrior role has led to the conceptualization of the American military as a maleoriented gendered institution. The masculine culture of the armed forces grew out of this view of military service as a young man's rite of passage, establishing not only citizenship, but also manhood itself.

The twentieth century witnessed increasing challenges to traditional gender roles, including the definition of the warrior/protector role as exclusively male. Forces such as industrialization, urbanization, the mobilization of American society for two world wars, and the growing impact of feminism during the 1960s and 1970s expanded women's occupational opportunities and undermined the traditional notion that certain professions were suitable for men only. Women were allowed into uniform as temporary auxiliaries in clerical roles during World War I. During World War II, women served as [Page 312]members of segregated branches of the armed forces (such as the Women's Army Corps) and performed low-risk support functions. In 1948, Congress passed the Women's Armed Services Integration Act, though there was strong opposition in Congress and in the military. This act established a permanent status for women in both the regular services and the reserves, but it excluded them from combat-related occupations and limited their numbers to no more than 2 percent of authorized strength. Congress abolished these limits when it ended the draft in 1973. Creation of the all-volunteer military brought women into the armed forces in increasing numbers, paving the way for complete gender integration in 1978. In the 1990s, however, Congress relaxed restrictions to allow them to serve on naval combat vessels and to fly jet fighters and helicopters. As of 2002, women were still barred from ground combat units.

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