Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Allison Wehrli
10 April 2019
Starting with the revolutionary war, women have heroically fought alongside men in
many capacities as they serve in the military. Since then, women in military positions have
continuously dedicated their careers, futures, and lives to the cause of national security. As they
have done so more positions that require advanced skills have been opened up to them. Currently
all military cadets have equal opportunity to achieve any rank or position (Carter). Despite these
changes in policy, many women face discrimination as they go into military service just as they
have been in the past (Jensen). These misconception that women can not perform as well as men
can in the high stress, physically exhausting, and life threatening situations required by soldiers,
are based on the idea that women need to be protected. However, studies have proven that many
women can and continue to match up to all of the male standards that have been placed. In one
such study, the 2011 class at West Point Academy had a 52% pass rate for their female cadets .
The inclusion of women into all military positions benefits the military due to the greater levels
of emotional intelligence, communication opportunities, and group intelligence that comes from
The ability to understand, empathize, and adapt to group emotions, referred to as social
sensitivity, allows leaders to effectively communicate with subordinates and leads to better group
cohesion. In a study conducted by the Michigan Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon
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they discovered that women possessed higher levels of social sensitivity. As women were added
into test groups, which were asked to complete various tasks with each other, they discovered
that the communication between groups became enhanced due the impact that social sensitivity
has on leadership. Leaders that have high levels of social sensitivity were found to have higher
group inclusion which resulted in greater levels of collaboration between team members. In
addition to aiding in group cohesion, the high levels of social sensitivity also limited the bias
polarization in group perspectives ( para Harring). This form of polarization comes from being
unable to empathize with the minorities ideas within a group. Due to women often being in the
minority position within groups, they display greater conscious awareness of the emotions and
perspectives that groups share or ignore (Jensen).This type of polarization happens within groups
when they have views that become supported by others in the group. As the support for an idea
grows the members of a group will believe in that idea more due to the social support for it
(Myers). Problems caused due to polarization can be avoided as leaders utilize the diverse
members of the group and gain greater empathy for their views (Jensen).
The impacts of social sensitivity further go on to explain why groups that contain more
women typically have greater group intelligence. In the MIT study they discovered that there
was a positive correlation between the number of women within a group and the overall group
intelligence recorded for that group (para Haring). Likewise in another study conducted by
Thomas Malone, Anita Woolley, and Christopher Chabris, they discovered that group
intelligence could predict group performance on various tasks. This lead to the conclusion that
the ability to evenly share time between group members when discussing the task resulted in
effective team work. In addition to the discovery of shared time amongst group members, they
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also discovered that the collective IQ of groups was not based upon the average of the IQ’s in the
group or the highest IQ that any individual in the group possessed. Individuals had little impact
on the social aspects This further proves that female presence in groups does not negatively
In addition to the numerous impacts that women have within their own units, they also
can be used to communicate with foreigners. Specialized teams of women have been created in
order to communicate with foreign women in cultures where male soldiers are unable to speak
with them. Eight year military journalist, Kevin Maurer explains that during visits in Afghanistan
the local women are often keep in different rooms than the males and they are not allowed to
speak to the male soldiers. Due to the interaction between sexes that are not related closely being
seen as unacceptable, the military has struggled to communicate with these woman to help them
out of their situations and to gather intel on the plans and positions of the enemy. Now we have
specialized task forces comprised entirely of women that study Afghanistan’s culture and prepare
for communication operations. Without the addition of women into the military half of the
Furthermore, as we show that we respect the wishes of their culture, we form alliances and
are better able to aid civilians. These programs started back in 2011 to give aid to women in the
war torn afghan culture have greatly benefitted many people. Members of these specialized task
forces explain that afghan women would travel four to five miles to receive necessities of life
that these groups would pass out to them (Stewart). Actions like these, demonstrate the
humanitarian aid that the United States strives to give to the needy around the world. Without
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female members in military ranks, these types of humanitarian outreach would not be possible to
women in the United States share all the same rights as any other citizen, and they have the
expectations of equality from the society (Jensen). Many feel that any people who have the same
shared rights should shoulder the same responsibility in national defense. This notion that all
people should equally defend the United States is supported by the allowance of women into all
military positions. The initial decision to allow women into the military originated based upon
the idea that half of the population was not being able to volunteer to defend the country in
certain positions. Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter explained that as an all volunteer military, it
is necessary to allow all potential candidates to be looked at in order to maintain the highest level
of military efficiency. Naturally, the integration of women has allowed a larger fighting force
By matching the current cultural beliefs in the country, the United States military is able
to receive greater support and funding from the national budget. Currently the Department of
defense allots $684.6 billion on military spending in 2019. This number as seen in the chart
The extensive amount of money placed into Military spending is expanding as the need for
It is for these reason that Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter, and many other prominent
military officers supported the integration of women into combat (Carter). As we allow women
into military ranks, the overall cohesive nature of military units will expand due to the social
sensitivity and group intelligence (para Haring) (para Gwynne, Gobble). The enhanced ability to
empathize, results in deep group understanding which allows the units to be strengthened
(Butcher). As units are strengthened, our military then better equipped to aid others in
humanitarian efforts and outreach programs. Through the addition of women into various
programs, many foreigners especially afghan women have been able to receive needed aid from
the United States (Maurer). Female soldiers add to the military in both numeric value and
character. There contributions throughout the history of the United States has led to their
Although American culture largely supports women in the military, the main reasons
behind their integration were the addition of new qualified volunteers in the armed forces. By
reaching the other half of the population all military branches can expand in numbers and
strength (Carter). As the military grows due to the increased number of potential candidates the
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revenue that is given to the Department of Defense also increases each year. As seen by the
diagram above, the Department of Defense military spending has increased at a continuous rate
since 2017. In 2020 the revenue given to military spending is expected to continue to follow this
trend of spending (Chantrill). The military continues to grow in numbers and in character, and
the addition of women into the armed forces aids that growth in substantial ways. The sacrifices
of women in the military result in the positive effects on units, military branches, foreign aid,
military funding, and social acceptance of women in combat (Carter) ( para Harring) (Chantrill).
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Works Cited
Butcher, Lola. “Making Empathy Count.” Physician Leadership Journal, vol. 6, no. 1, Jan. 2019,
p. 22. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=133541580&site=eds-live.
Carter, Ash, Interviewed by Gwen Ifill. PBS. PBS Newshour. 3 Dec. 2015. Web. 10 April 2019.
Chantrill, Christopher. N.p. “What is the Total US Defense Spending?” n.d. Web. 10 April 2019.
David, Myers. Myers’ Psychology for AP. Holland; Worth, 2010. Print.
Gwynne, Peter, and Mary Anne M. Gobble. “Group Intelligence, Teamwork, and Productivity.”
Research Technology Management, vol. 55, no. 2, Mar. 2012, pp. 7–8. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=72238892&site=eds-live.
Haring, Ellen. “What Women Bring to the Fight”. Army War College. Army War College. 2013.
Maurer, Kevin. “In new elite Army unit, women serve alongside Special Forces, but first they
must
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make the cut”. Editorial. Washington Post. Washington Post. 27 Oct. 2011. Web. 10
April 2019.
Stewart, Melissa. “Soldiers Reach Out to Afghan Women.” army.mil. 2 8 April 2011. Web. 10
April 2019.