There is nothing comparable to the endurance of a woman. In military life she would tire out an army of men, either in camp or on the march.
- Mark Twain's Autobiography
- Mark Twain's Autobiography
The news reported this week that women would be allow to serve in combat positions, closer to the front line, although still restricted from certain duties. Due to the nature of modern warfare, this has been happening for a long time and all this really was a match of the policy with the reality.
Of course what followed was politicians again stating that unit cohesion would be interrupted with women. That women lack the strength and endurance to keep up with their male counterparts. Even Rick Santorum was quoted saying:
“When you have men and women together in combat, I think there’s — men have emotions when you see a woman in harm’s way. I think it’s something that’s natural, that’s very much in our culture to be protective, and that was my concern,”
Really, men are still that chivalrous? I don’t think so. I think they can ignore a woman whenever they want to, especially when there is work to do.
I am a working woman, an engineer who works at the same corporation with my husband with the same job title. The difference between us is that I do the housework and he doesn’t. He would say that he does some, but probably would admit that I do more than him. I also train for marathons, triathlons and endurance bike rides. Sometimes he runs a mile or jumps rope for a few minutes. This past weekend was a typical example of our life together. On Saturday morning, I was up early, got a load of laundry in, piled the recyclables in the car and went to meet a friend for a run. Before I left the house, my husband told me that he and our son were going skiing. It was 11 degrees outside and my friend and I completed 13 miles in two hours and 15 minutes. Even though I was wearing a hat, the sweat in my hair froze into icicles. After running, I dropped the recyclables off and returned home. My husband and son were home having decided against skiing and hunkered down in front of re-runs of “Heroes” that they have been watching on Netflix. No housework had been done. After running for more than two hours, I cleaned the kitchen thoroughly including the floors and the inside of the microwave. Cleaned two bathrooms and one bathtub. Changed the sheets on two beds. If I point out that they don’t clean the bathrooms or change the sheets, they point to the time they did it a couple of years ago. My husband and son ignored what I was doing. Ignored that I was limping around the house because I had exacerbated a sore knee while running. My husband said that he would do the vacuuming “later”. After he got up from his nap, he told me that he needed to sleep after the stressful week that he had had.
On Sunday we were having someone over, so I did the vacuuming in the morning because my husband didn’t wake up before our guest came and later never came the day before. I went out for a shorter run because I had to plan the meals for the week and go out for groceries. More household tasks that my husband doesn’t help with. Our house is in the foothills located up 40 steps from the garage. For some reason, my husband rarely seems to be home or available to help get the groceries to the house or put them away.
Yes, Mr. Santorum, there are emotions, but it’s not protection. My emotions are frustration and rage that two capable males cannot get up off their butts to help with routine household chores, ignoring a woman who so obviously needs help. Letting me know they will do them “later”. We could be working as a team to get the job done quickly and lessen the work for everyone but instead they leave it to me to do. Why wouldn’t you want that in your military?
