History of women in the military Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

History of women in the military - Research Paper Example It has only been since recent decades that women have been welcomed into the military, but before this, it was something that was often done discretely. Even though women had often be seen in wars in the ancient and medieval battles, such as Joan of Arc in 1429 (Willens, 1996), it was in the early 1900s that women were being spoken against about why they should not participate in war. One of the biggest arguments was that women should stay at home and tend to their family, leaving their husbands to battle. Many women accepted this, though many more had the counterargument that the men could stay home while the women went off to fight. This was always quickly shot down, though, as the mothers were the ones that children really relied on. Other arguments included the fact that women were not physically built as men were, and therefore unlikely to handle the physical burden of being in a war; the emotional nature of a woman was also looked down upon, with many males and military officials believing that women did not have what it took to handle to emotional and often traumatic impacts of war. Women, however, fought their own battle to be allowed the chance to fight the other battles. The more that military officials realized how many women were sneaking into the wars, the more open they became to accepting them, also realizing that they could be huge assets in the outcome of the wars. Their male counterparts took their willingness as something positive that could be applied to the war; after all, nobody could deny someone who sincerely wanted to fight for a cause or for their country. Men quickly found the positives in this level of strength. It was World War I that really brought the change that women had been fighting for when the United States Navy began to accept women for enlisted service. After a successful first World War, it became clear that it would be beneficial to have women enlisted by