Exam Essay Historically, women have been excluded from combat roles. On the surface, it is because men, who have always considered themselves better and stronger than women, believe that women cannot shoulder the responsibility of holding a combat position and women are breaking the socially constructed gender norms that had been established . According to Nicole Dombrowski, “no other topic regarding the role of women in war creates as much debate as the question of the active participation of women in combat units.” The benefits of expanding women's roles in the military benefit not only women but service members as well. By comparison, the disadvantages of expanding women's roles are usually disadvantages for men within the military. Drawbacks of Expanding Women's Roles in the Military Society has imposed rigid gender norms on both males and females, and these norms are supposed to be rigid and fixed. However, when women began to fight for the right to be part of military institutions, they challenged gender norms. Throughout our class readings, a major and recurring drawback to why women were excluded from combat roles is because these women challenged social gender norms. According to Segal, it is difficult to include women in the military due to the social construction of gender; women must be perceived as people who change to adapt to the military role. Dowler also argues that women in combat roles are “out of place” with acceptable gender norms. She states that even today, combat roles are only defined as such if women do not fill that specific role. Dombrowski also says it's fascinating how the male-dominated military institution expresses its fear of women in ...... middle of paper ......en to female soldiers. To go back to the last point, there are always sexual distractions in any professional field, so why is it used to limit the integration of women into the military, when most cases of sexually based crimes are committed by male soldiers? Women in the military are more vulnerable than men, because they are the ones who are raped by their male soldiers. Marti Ribeiro was raped by her colleague. She tried to report it but if she had filed a report she would have been reported because she had the weapon unattended in a combat zone. To add, Lieutenant. Kelly Flinn was the first woman to fly a B-52 bomber and was accused of having had a sexual relationship with a civilian man. This is why responsible people fight against the integration of women into the military; they believe that this puts themselves and the unitary cohesion at risk which puts the nation at risk.