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Tag: women in combat
#EndorseThis: These Extraordinary Women Are Ready To Serve — Again

#EndorseThis: These Extraordinary Women Are Ready To Serve — Again

You’ve probably heard that an unprecedented number of women are running for Congress in this cycle — and you may also know that most of those female candidates are Democrats. No big surprise there.

But you may be slightly more surprised to hear that a significant number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are running this year as Democrats, too — and that eight of those highly decorated, patriotic, exceptional veterans are women who pioneered their roles in US military and intelligence services.

In this snappy ad from Serve America, a political action committee founded by Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), they tell their stories.

Click and be inspired.

 

Don’t Believe Ivanka: Trump Doesn’t Fight For Gender Equality

Don’t Believe Ivanka: Trump Doesn’t Fight For Gender Equality

While Ivanka Trump introduced her father on Thursday as a “gender-neutral” candidate who champions women’s equality in the workplace, the Republican nominee’s campaign operations, platform, and stated political beliefs tell a different story.

“As president, my father will change the labor laws that were put in place at a time when women were not a significant portion of the workforce,” Ivanka said during her speech at the final night of the Republican National Convention. “He will fight for equal pay for equal work.”

Contrary to her comments, though, the party platform passed earlier this week with Trump’s approval — and under the observation of his advisors — does little to combat issues like wage inequality or family leave. In fact, it doesn’t mention either one of those topics at all.

Instead, much of the language on gender issues in the Republican platform looks to “affirm the dignity of women” by opposing abortion, a practice that it rejects as a health care measure.

More specifically, the GOP opposes using government funds to perform or promote abortion, including funding Planned Parenthood and similar organizations — who, according to the RNC, “sell fetal body parts rather than [providing] health care.” That comment is a sly reference to a video hoax which purported to show Planned Parenthood officials discussing fetal tissue prices.

It’s not just abortion that Republicans find dangerous, though: According to the document, certain over-the-counter contraceptives (not named by the platform) are also a threat to women’s health.

And the only workplace the platform mentions with regard to gender equality is the military, though Republicans in fact want to keep enlisted women from performing the same work as men; they oppose “unnecessary policy changes” that would make women eligible for the draft and keep them away from the front lines of combat — a shift that was approved by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter in March.

While the platform is officially the expression of the Republican Party and not its presidential nominee, it still reflects on Trump and his priorities. His campaign added aggressively protectionist trade policies (to the point that many in the GOP aren’t on board) — it also took a decidedly hands-off approach on social issues.

Besides calling for the appointment of judges who oppose abortion, the Republican platform stands against the U.N. Convention on Women’s Rights, a historic document ratified by 189 countries (but not yet the U.S.) that looks to secure political, economic, social and marriage rights for women.

During Ivanka’s Thursday RNC speech, she also hailed her father for promoting gender equality in his own business, declaring that wage equality has been “a practice at his company throughout his entire career.”

Though statistics aren’t public about the Trump empire itself, his campaign operations don’t match up with Ivanka’s claim.

A Boston Globe investigation in April found that men in Trump’s campaign made on average $1600 more than women per month, or 35 percent more — that’s larger than the national gender pay gap. (For comparison, the gender pay gap between men and women in Hillary Clinton’s campaign is an average of $70.)

Ivanka claimed that more women than men are executives in Trump’s businesses, but, again, that doesn’t apply when it comes to his campaign: Just two of the highest-paid officials in his campaign for the month of April were women.

The Globe’s numbers are consistent, however, with Trump’s rare public comments on the issue.

Last July, he hinted on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” that he opposes adjusting women’s pay in order to achieve equal pay.

“When you have to categorize men and women into a particular group and a particular pay scale, it gets very — because people do different jobs,” he said. “It’s very hard to say what is the same job. It’s a very, very tricky question.”  By fighting to remove gender from the picture, rather than fighting for women’s rights, his views only seem to perpetuate gender inequality.

On paid family leave, he’s expressed a similar hesitation towards actually pushing for a change to the established, but unfair, system. “I think we have to keep our country very competitive, so you have to be careful of it,” he said on Fox News in October.

But both the platform and his own campaign lack any specific policies on these issues. It’s difficult to see a President Trump achieving anything approaching an equal workplace for women.

 

Photo: Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump greets his daughter Ivanka as he arrives to speak during the final session  at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Women Are Already Proving Their Worth In Combat

Women Are Already Proving Their Worth In Combat

Is Donald Trump the Republican Party’s leading misogynist? Not this week.

That honor goes to California Rep. Duncan Hunter, who pressed forward a bill that would require women to register for a draft.

Don’t be confused. A former Marine, Hunter doesn’t think women can hack it in military combat. He’s hoping that Americans will agree and start a fight that will play out in Congress.

A slim majority of his colleagues on the House Armed Services Committee saw things differently. They passed Hunter’s interestingly titled Draft America’s Daughters Act by a vote of 32 to 30. Six of his fellow Republicans broke ranks to support it. Duncan voted against it.

Hunter wants a backlash. Sorry, bro, but you’re too late with this little ploy.

Women have already begun proving that they can make it through the elite training programs such as that of the Army Rangers. And, no, the physical standards weren’t lowered.

Two days before the House committee voted, Capt. Kristen Griest was given the OK to transfer into the infantry ranks. She’s one of three women who already completed the grueling training. Brig. Gen. Diana M. Holland commands West Point.

Women began flying combat missions in the mid-1990s. And the definition of a front-line soldier was blurred if not decimated by the realities of terrorism, IEDs and how ground forces operated in Iraq and Afghanistan. Women are already in harm’s way and they are serving willingly, bravely.

In fact, 160 women died serving in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, according to the Washington Post’s count.

In light of those female soldiers’ deaths, it was sort of an anticlimactic in January when Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced the opening all combat roles to women, to begin this spring. He was following the plan first set in motion in 2013 under his predecessor Leon Panetta.

This directive hasn’t been undertaken lightly. Each branch of the military has studied it, surveyed troops and come up with strategies to meet the sort of “hell, no, not while I’m peeing standing up” attitudes of people like Hunter.

It may surprise many Americans that we still have draft registration, as no American has been drafted since 1973. All men aged 18-26 are required to register for selective service.

Because women were long excluded from applying for combat roles, they were also deemed not required to register. The U.S. Supreme Court decided this, arguing that it’s not fair to expect women to register and then tell them they aren’t eligible for most of the jobs.

However, that has been changing incrementally as more women are proving they can handle what men have always said we could not. There are definitely physical differences between men and women. But we’re talking elites here, from both genders. Most men couldn’t pass through the rigorous training necessary for some of these combat roles.

It should also be noted that the day after the House committee voted, two U.S. senators, Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, introduced the bipartisan Military Retaliation Prevention Act.

It’s part of ongoing efforts to reform the military justice system to wipe out the retaliatory efforts of some men against female soldiers reporting sexual assaults. The bill is one of many necessary efforts to ensure that women can serve their country and also remain safe from those who are supposed to be on their side.

Rep. Hunter is banking on a strategy that’s been thrown into the path of women for generations. It’s the one that coos to women that they don’t really want to be treated equally, that they don’t really want to be afforded the same opportunities as men. He expects that women will shrink and run when actually confronted with the demands of combat.

“A draft is there to put bodies on the front lines to take the hill,” he said. “The draft is there to get more people to rip the enemies’ throats out and kill them.”

Women are supposed to cower and cover their eyes at the thought of it all.

But the route to forming the strongest, best-functioning military we can build is not to exclude half of the population. The answer is to allow qualified men and women to serve in all roles.

This is how women make progress in society: in increments. Change by change, bravely standing up to opposition like the tiny grenade Hunter tried to toss out this week.

Mary Sanchez is an opinion-page columnist for The Kansas City Star. Readers may write to her at: Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 64108-1413, or via e-mail at msanchez@kcstar.com.

(c) 2016, THE KANSAS CITY STAR. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC

Photo: Maj. Lisa Jaster becomes first U.S. Army Reserve female Ranger. Paul Abell / AP Images for U.S. Army Reserve.