Study Document
Women Be Drafted to Serve in the Essay
Pages:2 (604 words)
Sources:2
Subject:Government
Topic:Women In Combat
Document Type:Essay
Document:#19223535
Women be Drafted to Serve in the Military?
Opinions vary on whether women should be drafted to serve in the military, or in particular, in the U.S. Army. Women currently serve in the U.S. Army and even on the front lines. But should they be drafted, if the country makes conscription legal again? This paper points to legal opinions and public opinions on this controversial topic.
The Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces (PCAWAF) commissioned the Roper polling organization to conduct research on attitudes from civilians and people in the military regarding opening the draft for women. The year was 1992, according to author Patrick J. Egan. In Egan's book he reports that the PCAWAF polling research revealed that 52% of the public supported "drafting women in the event of national emergency or threat of war" (Egan, 2008, p. 156). Some 39% of those polled were opposed to including women in military conscription, Egan reports.
The general feeling among those polled was that overall they preferred women go into the military voluntarily. Civilians were "more supportive of women serving in combat than were military personnel," the survey revealed. The most supportive branch of the military was the Navy (they support "equal roles for women," Egan explains on page 156); the next most supportive branch was the Air Force, followed by the U.S. Army. The Marines were "in a distant last place," Egan continued on page 156.
Egan's own research shows that over the past twenty years, the "structure of opinion on women and the draft… remains largely unchanged." For example, in 1982, 50.7% of all respondents supported women being drafted; in 1991 that figure stood at 51.5% and in 2003 it dipped slightly to 48.6%. It is interesting that African-Americans' views on women being drafted…
Sample Source(s) Used
Works Cited
Egan, Patrick J. Public Opinion and Constitutional Controversy. New York: Oxford University
Press: 2008.
Kuersten, Ashlyn K. Women and the Law: Leaders, Cases, and Documents.
Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO: 2003.
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