I have been speaking to men who have served in the ADF who expressed to me their concerns at the feminist push to have females serve in the front line. One of them angrily called for these people to be ‘sacked’.
The men who I spoke to were aware of such difficulties as the requirement for physical strength, and the ugy scenario that may occur in cases where a female soldier is captured by a certain enemy without regard for the Geneva Convention.
If the Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick gets permission to enter the ADF to investigate what she calls the ‘culture’ she should take into account the difficulty that serving males have when they consider having females (at present about 15 per cent of the ADF) in the front line. She may be advised to Google the excellent reports of the ADF (Australian Defense Association) who have written a lot about the subject of equal opportunity and gender equity in the armed forces.
There are those with plenty of gender zeal but no knowledge of the issues. The Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Tania Plibersek MHR (both members of the feminist group: Emily’s List) have called this week for women to be able to serve in frontline combat situations.
Consider the paratroops. Could a female, for example, be able to stand in an aircraft with a 150 pound (70kg) pack for 45 minutes before a drop, possibly in enemy territory–at night?
The feminist protagonists calling for equitable workplace involvement in the armed forces need to bone up on the serious nature of what they are proposing. The fact is that their male counterparts are not happy to go into combat with them–not based on sexist attitudes–simply effective combat issues. It is not ‘cultural conditioning’ historical or even ‘genetic’ that male combatants feel the way that they do.
Females need to understand there is a requirement for ‘muscle’ in the armed services, even in the ‘press button computerised age’ or flying aircraft– there is the need for physical strength. If an 80kg male soldier was wounded in a situation where he needed to be carried–females generally would be unable to help. Notwithstanding that, a lot of males simply don’t want to go into combat with females.
If Gillard, Plibersek et al think that by doing what they think would be right with Company Directorships (forcing Companies to include female Directors) –by manipulating to have the top-brass inclusion of females in the ADF, it would not make any difference to the practicalities in warfare, with the gender differences.
And the issue of who is the chief of the armed services is another issue –few Austraians are aware the PM is not the chief–it is the present monarch (Queen Elizabeth II) as stated in the Australian Constitution, Vested in her representative the Governor General.
(Paradoxically, we have a female, feminist Governor General. )
Warren James
