Dr. Warren Farrell is the author of many books, including two award-winning international best-sellers, Why Men Are The Way They Are plus The Myth of Male Power. His most recent books are Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say, which was a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, and Father and Child Reunion about how fathers can be successful at both work and home. His latest book, just published this year, Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap and What Women Can Do About It, helps both employers and employees understand what makes a company want to increase an employee’s pay. His books are published in over 50 countries, and in 10 languages.
Dr. Warren Farrell is available for expert testimony to help fathers stay equally involved in their children's lives after divorce.

CLICK HERE to contact Dr. Warren Farrell for information.

For more about Dr. Farrell or his books, see
www.WarrenFarrell.net (Why Men Earn More)
www.WarrenFarrell.biz (Father and Child Reunion)
www.WarrenFarrell.org
(The Myth of Male Power)
www.WarrenFarrell.info (Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say)
www.WarrenFarrell.us (Why Men Are The Way They Are)
www.WarrenFarrell.ws (The Liberated Man)

Do Women Belong in Combat? Part 1

by
Warren Farrell, Ph.D.

Four female Marines were just killed in Iraq (at the end of June, 2005). Immediately the headlines reflected the myriad of discussions as to whether women should be allowed in combat, and if so, with or without restrictions.

Rather than me give an immediate answer, let’s look at this issue from three perspectives: first, an unusual look at female career opportunities; second, its impact on men’s lives and careers; third, its impact on the military’s effectiveness. Then, I’ll conclude with some possible win-win solutions (creating opportunities for women without endangering men’s lives or limiting military effectiveness).

More than 400 Marines had been killed in the War in Iraq at the time that I completed the research for Why Men Earn More, in the Summer of 2004. One hundred percent were men. Despite many female Marines receiving combat pay, all of the deaths were deaths of our sons. Memorials were low key, and I had not noted one headline pointing out that 100% of the Marines who died were men. So before we translate this into a policy discussion, let’s look at the larger picture—how women can be so successful at getting hazard pay without the hazards—successful enough that it became the second of 25 ways to higher pay that I outlined in Why Men Earn More.

How do women get equal hazard pay with less than equal hazards—not just in the military, but in all hazardous professions?

It starts with an attitude toward the disposability of men vs. women. Every culture that has survived has done so by getting a cadre of people—called “men”—to compete to be disposable. This is so central to masculinity that when I wrote The Myth of Male Power, its subtitle was Why Men are the Disposable Sex. Every culture that has survived has trained its sons to call it “glory” to die—whether as gladiators or football players; whether as firefighters or soldiers.

Thus we have evolved what might be called a Catch-22 of hazardous occupations: The more hazardous the job, the more men; the more men, the less we care about making the job safer.

Hazardous Occupations
Fire fighting - 97% male
Truck drivers - 96% male
Construction - 98% male
Extractive occupations - 98% male

Safe Occupations
Secretary - 99% female
Receptionist - 98% female

The Catch-22 of hazardous occupations creates a “glass cellar” which few women wish to enter. Women are alienated not just out of the fear of being hurt on the job, but by an atmosphere that can make a hazardous job more hazardous than it needs to be.

Ninety-two percent of workplace deaths occur to men. The gender divide between hazardous and safe jobs gives us an important hint: understanding the gap is a key to understanding men and women, and therefore the underlying psychology behind why men earn more. We’ll see what it will ultimately take to get around this Catch-22 and, since that will be decades in coming, some more immediate secrets for women getting the benefits of hazard pay with virtually none of the hazards.

First, though, let’s take a hazardous occupations IQ test. Name three of the ten most hazardous jobs.

Okay. Now find them in the table above, the “Top Ten Most Hazardous Jobs.”

You probably guessed police, soldier, and firefighter. Although the most visible hazardous occupations, they are not among America’s ten most dangerous jobs. It’s more dangerous to be a “driver-sales worker.” Willy Loman finally gets his due.

With this overview under your belt, let’s return to the War in Iraq and how hazardous occupations give women equal pay with less than equal hazards.

How Hazardous Occupations Give Women Equal Pay with Unequal Hazards

Your daughter says, “Dad. Mom. I want to join the armed services.” You look at her beautiful face, her life flashes before your eyes, and you see a body bag.

Now’s the time to let her know the biggest military secret: She can join the military and be as safe-from-death as she would be at home. Here’s the way deaths in the military looked from a gender perspective as of July 2004.

War in Iraq
(March 2003 to July 2004)Military Service
Female Deaths Male Deaths # Soldiers Deployed
Marines
0 195 26,000
Air Force
0 11 23,000
Navy
1 20 16,000
Army
23 656 73,000
Total
24 882 138,000

While females comprise approximately 15% of active-duty military personnel, and 10% of those deployed in Iraq only a bit more than 2.3% of the soldiers killed in hostile action in Iraq were female.

Since suicide bombings and ambushes that allowed for less protection of women-as-women were more common during the war in Iraq, the percentage of female noncombat deaths was higher, at 3.4%. Overall, women constitute 2.6% of the deaths, men 97.4%.

Why is this so? And how does this translate into military policy? Tune in next month...

Resources:

17 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment and Earnings, (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, 2001) pp. 210-215, Table 39, "Median Weekly Earnings of Full-Time Wage and Salary workers by Detailed Occupational Sex."

18 US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, in cooperation with State and Federal agencies, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 2001. Table A-7. “Fatal Occupational injuries and employment by selected worker characteristics and event or exposures, All United States, 2001.”

19 Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2003, cited in Les Christie, “The Top Ten Most Dangerous Jobs in America, ” CNN/Money, October 13, 2003

20 Based on data from US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics ” National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries 2002” (press release, Sept. 17, 2003)

21 Department of Defense, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, as of July 24, 2004, from www.dior.whs.mil/mmid/casualty/castop.htm

22 Department of Defense, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, as of July 24, 2004, from www.dior.whs.mil/mmid/casualty/castop.htm

23 www.GlobalSecurity.org, as of May 15, 2004, from www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_orbat.htm

24 Defense Manpower Data Center, Sept. 30, 2003. Supplied by US Navy Captain Lory Manning, Director, “Women in the Military” Project at the Women's Research and Education Institute, (a policy think-tank in Washington, D.C.).

25 Department of Defense, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, as of July 24, 2004, from www.dior.whs.mil/mmid/casualty/castop.htm  Women accounted for 13 of 556 hostile deaths.

26 Department of Defense, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, as of July 24, 2004, from www.dior.whs.mil/mmid/casualty/castop.htm Women accounted for 7 of 208 non-hostile deaths.

27 Department of Defense, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, as of July 24, 2004, from www.dior.whs.mil/mmid/casualty/castop.htm

2005, Warren Farrell

Dr. Warren Farrell is the author of many books, including two award-winning international best-sellers, Why Men Are The Way They Are plus The Myth of Male Power. His most recent books are Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say, which was a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, and Father and Child Reunion about how fathers can be successful at both work and home. His latest book, just published this year, Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap and What Women Can Do About It, helps both employers and employees understand what makes a company want to increase an employee’s pay. His books are published in over 50 countries, and in 10 languages.
Dr. Warren Farrell is available for expert testimony to help fathers stay equally involved in their children's lives after divorce.
CLICK HERE to contact Dr. Warren Farrell for information.
www.WarrenFarrell.net (Why Men Earn More)
www.WarrenFarrell.biz (Father and Child Reunion)
www.WarrenFarrell.org (The Myth of Male Power)
www.WarrenFarrell.info (Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say)
www.WarrenFarrell.us (Why Men Are The Way They Are)
www.WarrenFarrell.ws (The Liberated Man)

Copyright 2005 Warren Farrell, Ph.D., all rights reserved