Date of Graduation

Summer 2009

Degree

Master of Science in Defense and Strategic Studies

Department

Defense and Strategic Studies

Committee Chair

Bradley Thayer

Abstract

This paper sought to understand what the impact of the integration of women has been to our nation's military. A history of the performance of women in basic training, their specialized military occupation, combat, and our highest military institutions was analyzed. There was then a comparison between the physical, psychological, and psychosocial differences between men and women using the fields of evolutionary biology, neurology, social anthropology, psychology, and the controlled observation of children. The evidence unanimously and irrefutably demonstrates that the differences between the sexes are based in nature through biological roots, and therefore are not socially constructed and cannot be educated or wished away. The traits which are most desirable in soldiers are characteristically male: physical strength and endurance, aggressiveness, willingness to be trained to kill an enemy, and willingness to expose oneself to risk. Integration of women in combat forces, and in the military overall, has had the impact of a weaker, less efficient, and less cohesive military.

Keywords

military, war, national security, women's studies, sex differences

Subject Categories

Defense and Security Studies

Copyright

© Kristia Natalia Cavere

Download

Campus Only

Share

COinS