REBEL GIRLS: Women in Combat
By Trevor K. McNeil
Unfair Exclusion
Women in combat comes across like a complex issue. Particularly in the United States with its military culture. As demonstrated by the fact that it had compulsory service longer than most other comparable Western democracies. Not stopping it entirely until 1973. There is still a Selective Service System that requires all male born US citizens to register for potential conscription by their 18th birthday. Which has raised questions as to whether the draft should be brought back and force women as well as men to serve. Raising and rehashing questions as to whether women are physically and mentally capable of combat.
Not An Enemy In the World
Generally speaking, bringing the draft back to America is unnecessary. America already has one of he largest military’s in the world and no viable enemies in terms of conventional warfare. Are there rogue states who could launch a nuclear weapon? Possibly but direct invasion by land, sea or air is essentially impossible. And almost always has been. The United States has not been directly attacked by an official government actor since WWII. And even that was not the mainland United States, in fact at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, Hawaii was not even a state.
War of 1812
There has not been a direct attack on the mainland United States by an official, national military since 1814, when James Madison spectacularly failed to annex British-Canada. The Brits fought back, driving American troops back across the border. The Brits followed the retreating Americans and attacked Washington, D.C., burning down the White House. Before being pushed back themselves, ending the war in a stalemate.
For Home and Family
As to the question of women in combat, particularly as to whether women are physically or psychologically capable of fighting, just look at history. Not only can women fight, they have been. Quite effectively and for over a century. The main difference being that women are more likely to fight in situations of direct existential threat, to themselves, their loved ones or their autonomy. Which could partly explain why in the ostensibly all-volunteer United States military, which has not been used for national defense since the 19th century, men outnumber women 100 to 1.
Fight For Your Life
An example of women in combat for existential preservation in the current context is that of Israel. One of the few nations in the world with universal conscription. 92 percent of combat roles are open to women, 70 percent being actively filled by females. The only limits to service are that one must be an Israeli citizen over the age of 18. Israel also has one of the lowest rates of deferment requests overall. Between 1962 and 2016 535 female soldiers have officially been killed in combat. The heaviest losses came during the Six Day War in 1967.
Uprising
Historically, women have been in combat, serving in both official and non-official roles, during some of the world’s worst conflicts, including World War II. This was particularly true during the Jewish ghetto uprising in Warsaw, Poland in April and May 1943. Women and girls running espionage, shooting soldiers and fire-bombing armored vehicles side-by-side with men and boys. Many of the women and girls, some as young as 13, taking up arms against the occupying forces, were the same who had been routinely sexually exploited and violated by Nazi forces.
Vive la Resistance!
There were also women in combat in France in terms of the legendary, if somewhat mythologized, French Resistance to Nazi occupation. Again a situation of resistance against an occupying force indiscriminate in its cruelty. They as a society were fighting a force greater than themselves and needed everyone they could get. As such women and girls played major roles in the French Resistance. Current estimates have up to a quarter of resistance fighters in Paris were female.
Wings of Death
An example of women in combat in an official capacity is the Soviet Union which has had female front line forces, including snipers as far back as WWI. A feature of the Soviet system being that every citizen had to give, anyway they could. The most famous example of Soviet women in combat is the all-female 588th Night Bomber Regiment. Active during World II, the regiment would fly daring night missions in what were basically training aircraft left-over from World War I.
With Wood and Canvas
Their bi-planes made of wood and canvas were slower but quieter and easier to maneuver than the modern aircraft of the 1940’s. Cutting their engines on approach to avoid detection, these lady pilots would glide down, taking out essential German targets before turning their engines back on and pulling up just before they crashed. A tactic that led the Germans to refer to the regiment as “Nachthaxen” (“Night Witches”). The sound of the planes swooping out of the night sky likened to the sound of a witch swooping down on her broom-stick. As German commander Johannes Steinhoff put it in 1942: “We simply couldn’t grasp that the Soviet airmen that caused us the greatest trouble were in fact women. These women who feared nothing. They came night after night in their very slow biplanes, and for some periods they wouldn’t give us any sleep at all.”
Go On Home British Soldiers
Women in combat were the heart of the Irish Republican Army and they would prove to be essential in the Irish conflict. Despite how it might seem, the Irish Troubles were primarily a conflict over land. Yes, the majority of Republicans (separatists) were catholic and many of those loyal to Britain were Protestant. Though not all, particularly during the days of the Anglo-Irish War (1919-1921). Most Republicans seeing it as being about Irish sovereignty.
Rebel Girls
The I.R.A. had a democratic attitude toward women. Leading to a lot of women in combat, as well as government. Women were some of the most forceful figures in the Sinn Fein party. The SF had been legally elected but was officially an unrecognized Republican government. Many of the Irish Republican Army’s most vital reconnaissance and supply officers were female. Women would often provided weapons training to new recruits. Female I.R.A. members carried firearms to defend themselves, and would carry and provide guns for ambushes to other Republican soldiers, often delivering vital communications. Women were considered full participants in the conflict, both by the Irish and the Brits. They faced severe treatment by the notorious “Black and Tans” regiment of the British army if captured. Captured I.R.A. women were regularly beaten, raped and tortured by the black and tans.
Dresses and AR18s
Women in combat in Ireland continued during the street-to-street urban warfare in the North, starting in the 1960’s. Many women and girls were responsible for transporting munitions, hiding fugitives and providing recon to central command. Women also took on roles such as providing security for Republican neighborhoods, often frisking suspected loyalists at gunpoint. As well as taking part in ambushes, getting into ferocious shootouts with occupying British troops. They also proved to be quite effective snipers. Their smaller, more flexible bodies making it easier to get up to and then traverse rooftops. Giving their battalion a vital advantage in street battles.
Result!
Women in combat helped win a degree of independence for Ireland. First forcing a peace agreement, making the southern counties a Free State which would lead to a Republic a decade later. Then, negotiating a ceasefire with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, which later led to the last withdrawal of British troops in 2007.
Lessons From History
While it might feel counter-intuitive, largely based on reductionist gender tropes, women are very much capable of engaging in combat. Aside from logistical and moral issues with the reintroduction of the draft in general, not least that the U.S. military has essentially been a foreign policy tool since WWII, there is no practical reason a revived draft should not include women as well as men.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_Israel_Defense_Forces https://www.upworthy.com/15-badass-women-of-world-war-ii-you-didnt-learnabout-in-history-class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Witches https://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A5849076 https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/female-ira-fighter-1970s/
