Start Date
12-6-2011 9:30 AM
End Date
12-6-2011 12:00 PM
Subject Areas
North America, activism, feminist, labor/business, war
Abstract
During the 1970s, partially as a result of social pressures, the United States military began to articulate a dedication to equal opportunity for women. Although this was not the first time the services expressed interest in creating an equal opportunity employment environment, this was the first time that the military expressly claimed to offer equal opportunity employment on the basis of sex, rather than race. However, the military’s vision of sexual equal opportunity often had many limitations.
The Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948 classified servicewomen specifically as noncombatants. In theory, this offered women a wide range of work options in the Cold War military, as combat comprised only a small portion of military roles. In reality, until the end of the draft in 1973, servicewomen remained concentrated in traditionally feminine roles, only moving slowly and in small numbers towards non-traditional jobs. When the draft ended in 1973, womanpower quickly became an increasingly important national defense resource. Coupled with new social acceptance for women’s rights due to second wave feminism, the transition to the all-volunteer force made it possible for servicewomen to fight successfully for greater employment equality.
As military women and their civilian advocates successfully expanded servicewomen’s work options, the Department of Defense proudly affirmed its movement towards full equal opportunity, even while continuing to bar women from combat and combat support roles. This paper considers how the Department of Defense could claim it offered equal opportunity while still restricting women from an important arena of military service.
Keywords
military, 1970s, ERA, equality, United States
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
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(Un)Equal Opportunity? The Paradox of Equal Opportunity in the Cold War Military
During the 1970s, partially as a result of social pressures, the United States military began to articulate a dedication to equal opportunity for women. Although this was not the first time the services expressed interest in creating an equal opportunity employment environment, this was the first time that the military expressly claimed to offer equal opportunity employment on the basis of sex, rather than race. However, the military’s vision of sexual equal opportunity often had many limitations.
The Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948 classified servicewomen specifically as noncombatants. In theory, this offered women a wide range of work options in the Cold War military, as combat comprised only a small portion of military roles. In reality, until the end of the draft in 1973, servicewomen remained concentrated in traditionally feminine roles, only moving slowly and in small numbers towards non-traditional jobs. When the draft ended in 1973, womanpower quickly became an increasingly important national defense resource. Coupled with new social acceptance for women’s rights due to second wave feminism, the transition to the all-volunteer force made it possible for servicewomen to fight successfully for greater employment equality.
As military women and their civilian advocates successfully expanded servicewomen’s work options, the Department of Defense proudly affirmed its movement towards full equal opportunity, even while continuing to bar women from combat and combat support roles. This paper considers how the Department of Defense could claim it offered equal opportunity while still restricting women from an important arena of military service.