Sample Solution

How have the experiences, representation, and recognition of women in the military transformed, a century after the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution? As Brookings President and retired Marine Corps General John Allen has pointed out, at times, the U.S. military has been one of America’s most progressive institutions, as with racial integration in the years after World War II. But it also embodies a traditional, conservative, and in some ways “macho” culture. It’s an organization where many (though far from all) jobs require a type of physical strength that is more frequently attainable for the male frame. And the military is, in large part, a deployable institution whose members can face difficult conditions in the field. Women are no less suited to braving such austere conditions and have proved that in combat. But there can be major challenges associated with sending a mix-gender force into such conditions. The armed forces have come a long way in the last few decades, but this is hardly the time to spike the football in the end zone. There is so much further to go and addressing these issues of gender equity will not be easy.