Throughout the last decades, the armies of the European countries have evolved in a non-concerted but convergent way, developing common characteristics among which the growing integration of women, both in the troop class and in the officer ranks, stands out. This work makes a comparative exercise of the different national cases, establishing as basic elements of analysis the antecedents of the presence of women in the Army, the normative evolution that has protected and governed their incorporation to the ranks, their specific quantitative and qualitative dimensions in the armies, the diverse modalities of access to the academies, the possible limitations in the professional career, and the level of evolution of certain social policies that favor the professional development and the family norms.
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The role of women in combat has been a controversial issue in the U.S. armed forces for decades. Yet, it has been only 30 years since the first women graduated from the US Military Academy, and only since 9/11 have large numbers of them served in combat zones alongside their male counterparts. This article examines the all-too-brief life of one of them, 2LT Emily Perez, who was the first female graduate of West Point to be killed in the line of fire in Iraq and the first member of the "Class of 9/11" to die in combat. A statistical comparison of female representation at the three major U.S. service academies is included, along with a discussion of the emergence of minorities. An African-American with paternal roots in Puerto Rico, this soldier epitomized all that is right about women serving in combat, willing to sacrifice their lives for the interests of their country. 2LT Perez's legacy lives on today among her family, friends, classmates, fellow soldiers, and the unique charitable causes promoting the values she held dear. The following is a tribute to "Emily's Way."
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The article reviews the commitments undertaken by NATO, from an institutional and operational point of view, to ensure awareness and dissemination of its mandates, especially in the field of crisis management. Secondly, it examines the EU's actions in promoting and defending the rights of women and girls living in conflict situations in all areas of its policies, including the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP). Finally, the article considers the progressive extension of the gender perspective to the three dimensions of the OSCE: the politico-military, the economic-environmental and the human dimension. The essay concludes by offering a balance of the achievements of these institutions in recent years, as well as the pending challenges to continue the correct implementation of Resolution 1325 in all peacekeeping and peacebuilding activities.
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The objective of this research is to answer the question: How much progress have South American countries made in the implementation of equal opportunity policies within the Armed Forces? To this end, the study was approached from the perspective of gender equity, reviewing the state of the question through the increase in the incorporation of women into military institutions in the region. However, a historical-quantitative analysis is insufficient for this approach. For this purpose, it was complemented with a qualitative analysis that allows us to analyze specific public policies applied in this field to generate equal opportunities and to visualize the situation of women within military institutions in South America. Finally, it is necessary to clarify that the field of study of the South American countries chosen excludes Suriname, Guyana and French Guyana because it is understood that their cultural and historical identification with the region has been scarce or even nonexistent if we approach it from the specific field of defense.
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This paper analyzes the international and national regulations concerning the evolution in the world and in the Oriental Republic of Uruguay of gender equity, the elimination of discrimination against women, as well as the promotion and protection of the rights that the female gender has been forging, especially in the fields of security and defense. A brief review is made of women's participation in these areas, past and present, and of the process of inclusion in the Uruguayan Armed and Police Forces, concluding with some suggestions of what remains to be done to continue with the work of achieving full equality of roles and functions in society between men and women.
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The incorporation of women into terrorist groups has occurred in disparate ways and with commitments characterized by gradual rhythms. This paper approaches the problem heuristically from a culturalist perspective, which has as its explanatory axis the male-female relationship. It is found that women leaders of terrorist organizations, or protagonists of emblematic acts, are rather a rarity, except in the Salvadoran and German experiences; both with quasi-epic connotations. Among the explanatory keys, the environmental influence of the machismo of the time is proposed, especially in Latin America, and reflected both in the very beginnings of the Cuban guerrillas and later in the various insurrectional pockets. The environmental influence would act as a major inhibiting factor. At the same time, the proletarian internationalism that was the basis for the proliferation of such groups seems to have been, at its core, a male thing. There is no record of women (not even Cuban) fighting alongside the mythical Ché in Bolivia; nor is there any record of any revolutionary leader accompanying Guevara in his previous journeys to the Congo, Algeria and others. A second major finding aims at explaining the irruption of women as suicide bombers as a product for communicational consumption. The crudeness of this incorporation of women into the great Chechen and Palestinian terrorist causes is rather frightening and raises a very pertinent doubt as to whether this phase responds to a construct or to a reliable integration into the cause they appear to embrace.
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This paper discusses the enrollment of women and homosexuals in the Armed Forces of South American and NATO countries. There are discrepancies in the discussion of this issue in both groups of countries. It seems to be easier for the military to deal with the enrollment of women than to accept the enrollment of homosexuals. The paper conducts a detailed analysis of the development of this issue in Brazil, because this is the country where the writer of this paper has the larger bulk of information and the one that, militarily speaking, is the most important in South America. This is a preliminary study, and some data are lacking, precisely due to the fact that there has not been a widespread academic debate on the issue at hand. However, the purpose of this paper is to encourage discussion, to disseminate previously collected information and to present a number of possible viewpoints.
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