By: Marilyn Elias, Detroit News
Friday, April 25, 2003


Professor Abigail Stewart is quoted in a Marilyn Elias article about the role of women in the military. The article appeared in the April 23, 2003 Detroit News.

War boosts debate over female roles: Questions of equality, expendability rise as U.S. puts more women in or near combat

ANN ARBOR -- There's no doubt that more American servicewomen are in life-threatening danger than ever before. At about 210,000 strong, active-duty women make up 15 percent of the forces.

They used to do mostly white-collar work or nursing, but that has changed gradually since the Vietnam War. More than 90 percent of military jobs now are open to women. They're not in front-line and Special Forces units, but women are dropping bombs, launching missiles, serving as military police and landing squarely in harm's way.

The problem is, "if equality means anything, it means men and women are equally expendable or not expendable," said University of Michigan psychologist Abigail Stewart, who has studied how women change as they age.

"Ideas about the need to 'protect' women have held us back in a million ways," Stewart said. "If we want access to opportunity in the military, we have to accept the demands, including the demand that puts our bodies at risk. Otherwise, it's not fair to men or women." ...

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