Female Fighters

Letter of Purpose and Instruction

 

          The game “Deployment” was created to educate about the issue of women in serving in positions in the military that could see direct combat.  Currently, women are not permitted to serve in these positions, which calls to question the value of preserving equality in the military versus ensuring that the United Sates military remains operating at it’s highest efficiency.  This issue affects many Americans, even those not serving in the military.  The armed forces are an essential part of domestic security, and everyone must ask themselves whether allowing women to serve in combat positions will adversely affect the combat efficiency of the military.  Proponents of allowing women to serve in combat positions state that it would provide equal career opportunities for men and women in the military, reflecting values of equality deeply held in the Untied States.  Also, many believe that by allowing women in combat roles, it would close a perception discrepancy in the military where men are the fighters and women are relegated to lesser tasks.  Closing this gap, many believe, would help address the issue of sexual assault in the military by clearly making women the equals of men.   Those who do not believe women should serve in combat positions express concerns that women would not be able to take the physical strain that comes with serving on the frontline as well as questions over whether introducing women into traditionally all male units would disrupt unit cohesion and therefore reduce the operating efficiency of those units.  In July of 2013, the Secretary of Defense announced that by 2016, all combat positions must be opened to women, or branches must request specific exemptions for women for certain positions, such as Army Special Forces or Navy SEALs that are extremely demanding.  

          In the game “Deployment”, two players are cast into the roles of tow soldiers in the same unit serving a tour of duty overseas.  One is male and one is female, and the game contrasts their different experiences.  While one might question why a woman is attached to a unit that sees combat, there have been cases, such as with the Marine’s Lioness program, where women are attached to units going into the field in order to talk to locals who are intimidated by male soldiers.  This program has met with much success as many residents, especially females, are more willing to talk and work with other women.  It is assumed that this is the case for this particular unit.  The game is started with each player putting their piece on the starting block labeled for them.  Players will take turns rolling a dice and advancing that many spaces.  The different spaces on the board will either indicate a particular event in that soldier’s tour of duty, such as a promotion/ commendation etc. that may affect the game play or it will be marked “Staff Meeting” where players will draw from the pile of cards marked “Staff Meeting”.  On these cards, there will be questions posed to the players to discuss between themselves on issues facing leaders when deciding whether women should be in combat.  If a player lands on a space marked “Additional Training”, they will draw from a pile of cards marked as such and read aloud some information on the issue.  Through reading information on the topic and discussing the issues themselves, it is hoped that the players would leave the game having a deeper understanding of the issue of women in combat, but also to have developed their own opinion on the topic.  The players would hopefully understand the different viewpoints on the issue and the contrast between equality for women and the concerns over what it would mean in real world situations to have women serving alongside men.

In terms of additional information on the topic, there are a number of news articles on the topic such as the award winning essay “Why Women Do Not Belong in the U.S. Infantry” by  Capt. Lauren F. Serrano, or “Opinion: The Pentagon should drop the ban on women in combat units – no exceptions” by Brian Wagner of the Washington Post.  Additionally, Capt. Zoe Bedell of the United States Marine Corps did a very informational TEDx Talk at Harvard Law School entitled “Women in Combat” on her experiences with female marines in Afghanistan.