Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-8zxtt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T21:29:25.961Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Gender, Sexuality and the Profession of Arms

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Women in Combat and the ‘Band of Brothers’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2023

David Fitzgerald
Affiliation:
University College Cork
Get access

Summary

This chapter begins with the Army’s position in the 1993 debate over allowing gay personnel to serve openly in the US military. The chapter argues that the generals’ arguments for maintaining the ban on gay people in the military centred on the notion that the military was an exceptional institution within US society, with claims about the need for combat cohesion and the maintenance of a ‘band of brothers’ paramount in their approach to the issue. When it came to the question of women’s service in the military, the debate played out on very similar lines. As with gay soldiers, critics argued that the presence of women would negatively affect the cohesion of these close-knit outfits. Not only that, but a series of sexual assault scandals prompted right-wing critics of the military to contend that the Army should discontinue gender-integrated recruit training and further restrict the role of women in the Army. This went in tandem with complaints that recruit training was now too soft, and that the Army should look to the Marine Corps for an example for how to recruit and train warriors.

Type
Chapter
Information
Uncertain Warriors
The United States Army between the Cold War and the War on Terror
, pp. 60 - 100
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×