The Utilization of Women in the Military

• Author: Nancy Goldman
• DOI: 10.1177/000271627340600110
• Published date: 01 March 1973
• Date: 01 March 1973
• Published By: Sage Publications, Inc.
• Subject Matter: Articles

The Utilization of Women in the Military
By NANCY GOLDMAN
ABSTRACT: In the decade of the 1970s there will be an
increase in the number and percent of women in the United
States military. Trends indicate that this rise will move
steadily but gradually from less than 2 percent women in the
armed services to approximately 4 percent. Although the
number and percent of women in uniform will remain small,
their increase will assist in meeting the expected "short fall"
in manpower. The trend to expand the number of women in
the military will continue in the 1980s, but it seems unlikely
that a 10-percent level, which could be considered possible,
will be reached.
Historically in industrialized countries
women have been excluded from armed combat roles and
significant positions in administration. They have served as
nurses, secretaries, and clerks and in routine types of com-
munications. Each service has made plans and proposals to
increase the number of women and the variety of jobs open
to them and to deal with other expressed dissatisfactions,
such as living quarters and regulations related to the retention
of the careers of married women. Additional problems of
protocol between the sexes and the integration of women in
the military will have to be faced. Although it is likely that
the military will continue its tradition of excluding women
from direct combat positions, with an increased emphasis on
deterrence there will be an increase in the number of positions
in which the "fighting spirit" is irrelevant, many of which will
become available to women.
Nancy Goldman is Research Associate in the Center for Social Organization Studies,
University of Chicago. She has written on the role of women in various professional
studies. Her research interests include urban sociology and community organization.
She is a member of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society and
is particularly concerned with the changing role of women in the volunteer forces.
107

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108
AS AN institution that manages vio-
lence,
ing emphasis on deterrence, alter the
the military is a male-
organizational milieu of the armed
dominated organization which excludes
forces and potentially broaden sex roles
women from direct combat roles and
in a direction favorable to women.
from significant assignments in admin-
In his study of The Professional Sol-
istration. Nevertheless, with the pros-
dier, completed in 1960, Morris Jano-
pect of an all-volunteer force, the num-
witz did not find it necessary to deal in
ber of women in the armed forces has
any depth with women personnel be-
gradually increased, and their assign-
cause of their derivative role and lack
ments have steadily broadened. Al-
of impact on the organizational climate
though this trend is likely to continue,
of the profession.3 While Janowitz fore-
there is no reason to believe that the
saw the end of the mass army and the
proportion of women in the military and
movement toward a more contractual
the range of their employment and re-
system, he did not anticipate an in-
sponsibility will increase rapidly or dra-
creased emphasis on the recruitment of
matically.
women into the military. Charles Mos-
The encountered and projected in-
kos, a decade later, still had to point
crease of women in the armed forces
out that the position of women in mili-
reflects, first, external social change in
tary organizations is almost completely
the United States and the conscious ef-
unresearched.4 This paper seeks to as-
fort of the military to recognize and in-
sess the available data and draw some
corporate such change.
Second, be-
inferences about the changing context of
cause of the relatively low status of the
women in the military.
profession, the traditional anti-military
attitudes in the society, and the nega-
TRENDS IN UTILIZATION
tive impact generated by the war in
Vietnam, the movement to an all-volun-
Because Great Britain has had an
teer force requires the military to in-
all-volunteer force for the past ten years,
tensify its search for sufficient man-
it is relevant to compare the percentage
power.
The armed forces have tradi-
of women on active duty there with that
tionally recruited
disproportionately
in the United States. Since converting
from the margins of American society;
to a fully volunteer service, Great Bri-
they have recruited heavily from the
tain has expanded the concentration of
rural areas, particularly the South,
women to meet its personnel require-
where unemployment and underemploy-
ments. In 1970, it had 14,000 women
ment are most prevalent; and more re-
out of 372,500 in the services, or 3.8
cently, personnel have been sought
percent.
5
This percentage figure is much
among the black community.1 Women
higher than that for the United States
also are a potential source of labor.
-in fact, it is three times greater, since
Third, the changing character of the
military establishment, together with
2. Henry Kissinger, Problems of National
Strategy: A Book of Readings (New York:
its great emphasis on administration,
Praeger, 1965).
logistics, and the like, plus its increas-
3. Janowitz, The Professional Soldier.
4. Charles C. Moskos, Jr., "Minority Groups
1. Morris Janowitz, The Professional Sol-
in Military Organization," in Roger W. Lit-
dier (New York: Free Press, 1960, 1971), pp.
tle, ed., Handbook of Military Institutions
79-101; Charles C. Moskos, Jr., The Ameri-
(Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1971), p. 286.
can Enlisted Man: The Rank and File in
5. Britain, 1971: An Official Handbook
Today’s Military (New York: Russell Sage
(London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office,
Foundation, 1970), pp. 108-18.
1971), p. 120.

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109
in 1970, there were 41,000 women, or
TABLE 1-MILITARY PERSONNEL ON ACTIVE
1.35
5
DUTY 1945
percent,
TO SPRING
on active duty in the
1972, PERCENT
FEMALE OF TOTAL PERSONNEL
United States.
This difference cannot
be accounted for by any difference in
age structure.
In the United States since the end of
World War II and as of spring 1972,
the armed forces had not even filled the
2-percent authorized quota for women,
despite the fact that women are entirely
volunteers.
In Table 1, the trend in
the use of women in the armed forces
is presented for the period from 1945
to 1972. In 1945, the military reached
a high point of over 12,000,000 active
officers and enlisted persons, with 265,-
006 women. As part of a process of
&dquo;total&dquo; mobilization, the percentage of
...