Thursday, January 24, 2013

Little Ladies

I don't know if this is true, but it certainly makes sense.

If the United States had previously allowed women to serve officially in military combat roles, including special operations forces, there might be fewer sexual assaults in the armed services, the Pentagon's top general told reporters Thursday.

Having studied the issue of rampant sexual misconduct in the ranks, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted that he has concluded that the phenomenon exists partly because women have been subordinated to men in military culture: "It's because we've had separate classes of military personnel."

I doubt this is a provable assertion, but if an institution makes women subordinate it wouldn't be too surprising if the men in that institution end up seeing them that way. And that's been the situation.