My Role as a Military Officer, need 550 word essay

My Role as a Military Officer, need 550 word essay

A key element in the construction of gender identity throughout U.S. history has been the almost exclusive male monopoly on the role of warrior and soldier. This role grew from a belief in superior male physical strength, stamina, and courage that has deep roots in Western civilization. The forces that originally defined American culture established a strong tie between masculinity and military service in time of war and conflict.

Throughout American military history, government leaders and the military establishment have used this traditional notion of gender identity and obligations of male citizenship to persuade men to join the armed services and participate in the country's defense in wartime. This process has drawn large numbers of young men into uniform with minimal formal coercion. It has helped to glorify behaviors that encourage a high level of combat effectiveness, such as loyalty to comrades and a willingness to face danger, and it has reinforced accepted gender roles in the wider society that portray men as warriors and protectors and women as supporters and nurturers.

Europeans colonizing North America brought with them the perception, reinforced by medieval concepts of chivalry, that men had the duty of protecting women from outside invasions or internal uprisings. During the Revolutionary War and in the early days of the republic, concepts of male identity that emphasized obligations to fight to guard family and community and to resist tyranny and centralized authority became more pronounced. The republican ideals embodied in the American Revolution stimulated an aversion to large professional armies and a belief in the male citizen soldier who served in local militia forces out of a civic obligation to protect the democratic values of the republic. The values and standards of the predominately small town and rural communities from which these men came shaped their male identities and strengthened the cohesiveness, discipline, and combat effectiveness of the militia units to which they belonged.

The American military experience in nineteenth-century wars, particularly the Civil War, strengthened the notion that military service was the preserve of men. In the conscript armies of World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, the military authorities continued to manipulate these gender roles and symbols, placing an added emphasis on the individual soldier's loyalty to his primary unit (squad, platoon, or company). This imbedding of ...