Summary Of Equality In Army And Society By Tarak Barkawi

Improved Essays
As a modern, growing country America has supposedly overcome ideas such as strict traditional gender roles. Author Tarak Barkawi confronts this issue as he argues we have missed an area in our United States military. His article published in 2012 titled, “Equality in Army and Society”, harshly challenges the rules and regulations in the U.S army against women’s rights. Barkawi’s main point is, women do not have the same career opportunities due to traditional roles, masculinity in the military, and civilian ideas of gender roles. Barkawi states, “the army is one of the last redoubts of traditional masculinity”. He is saying the final war to fight for women’s rights is in our own U.S army. Barkawi does not ignore the small steps women have made in …show more content…
The author describes after The Battle of the Bulge, where African Americans were allowed to fight alongside their white peers for the first time, “their valour and sacrifice was noted by white officers who, after the war, rose to positions of seniority” (Barkawi). He goes on to say without this initial exposure to equality we never would have seen how equality can work in the army between African Americans and Caucasians. Barkawi further compares women in the army to women who have been, “serving on warships and flying combat jets for two decades”. Most convincing is the author's evidence to his argument on traditional roles at play. He asks readers to recall Jessica Lynch’s story. “Lynch was ‘rescued’ by U.S special forces. The pentagon and especially the media played up false stories that Lynch was tortured and badly treated by iraqis” (Barkawi). Here he backs up his argument of masculinity in the army. It was more important that Lynch was saved by men than anything she had to share about the truth of her

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