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Women have been battling discrimination for a long time. There was a time when a woman couldn’t even vote. Other forms of discrimination were greatly diminished in recent decades. The equal opportunity act was passed that made it unlawful to discriminate against a person because of her sex in the workplace. Sexual harassment is taken very seriously these days. The fact remains that women still get payed less for the same work as a man does, about 75 cents on the dollar. However, the aggressive push for equality between men and women has also resulted in going over board and essentially tipping the scale towards discriminating against men.

If you are a guy, you already have a pretty good idea what I mean. If a man voices an opinion that is critical of women, he is labelled a sexist regardless what the issue might be. The idea is dismissed regardless of merit, and the man in question might wear the stigma of bigot for a long time to come. If you are reading this and you are a feminist, you are probably getting worked up right now even tough you have no idea what I am about to say. If I had said this to you face-to-face, you would have cut me off a long time ago.

In 1994, a piece of legislation was passed that prohibited the military from sending women to the front lines. They are to be excluded from any mission whose main objective is direct combat with the enemy. National Public Radio (NPR) did a piece on this in October of 2007. No official explanation was given as to why the law came into existence in the first place. One person interviewed threw listeners a bone by giving an example where it could be potentially disastrous to have a woman in a combat unit. If a man were to get wounded on the battlefield and he had to be evacuated, a generally smaller, less strong female might not be up to the task. The difference in physical strength could prevent her from carrying out her duties, and may cause the life of a comrade.

The elephant in the room that no one seemed to notice was the inherent sexist nature of the law. Men and women are supposed to be equal. Equal rights should also mean equal responsibilities. That should also include dying on the battle field. Why? Because the man who essentially took the place of the woman in combat and got injured, maimed or killed is also somebody’s son, brother or husband. About 20% of today’s military is made up by female personnel. That means that one fifth of the dead should also be women. It’s only fair.

But what about the issue of the difference in strength mentioned earlier. All female units would address that problem.

But no one even brought this up in the NPR news piece, nor do I expect an investigative report on this anywhere else any time soon. I have only one word of advice to the ladies. Pushing for double standards, trying to have your cake and eat it too will only hinder your efforts to be treated equally. While in today’s world, men will not speak out against these things openly, it is still an “man’s world” and they will find a way to fight back. The only way women could ever hope to be treated equally is to accept equal responsibility while pushing for equal rights.