Essay 261 – Women should play an equal role in a country’s police and military force

GT Writing Task 2 / Essay Sample # 261

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Some people believe that women should play an equal role to men in a country’s police force and military force, such as the army. Others say women are not suited to this kind of work.

Discuss both these views and give your opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Model Answer:

Opinions are divided on the issue of recruiting women for the armed forces. Many feel that females can work shoulder to shoulder with their counterparts in these fields, such as the combat unit. Yet others opine that females are not suitable for this type of job and the writer concurs with this latter view.

The proponents of gender equality believe that women deserve an opportunity in serving in the police and military force. Just like males, according to them, females ought to be allowed to choose how they fight for their nation based on their strength. Joining the army requires meeting physical standards regardless of gender, if there are women who can meet the same training standards as men, they could be a valuable asset to a team. For instance, Megan Frost, one of the most revered war veterans in Australia who brought many glorious achievements in many battlegrounds.

Others, in contrast, claim that the military should be restricted to men only. For them, recruiting women in combat units seems to invite potential sexual harassment into the army. Putting males and females together in the combat training atmosphere includes confined spaces like a bunker with no privacy, and that can cause anything from distracting mutual relationships to sexual assaults. In 2018 alone, twenty thousand women were sexually harassed in the US army and sexual trauma is a major cause of post-traumatic stress disorder in woman veterans. This is why they believe that the military ought to be reserved exclusively for men.

Personally, I think that women should not be recruited for the military or the police force. This is because political correctness has no space in the army. Gender equality should not be a consideration while people’s lives are at stake. Besides, female soldiers are overwhelmingly likely to be targeted attacks by enemies. If letting females fight on the battlefield causes a threat to the safety of all soldiers, then providing equal opportunity to males and females can be a recipe for terrible disaster.

In conclusion, although some women are compatible with armed forces in some sense, this essay argues that the blending of the sexes has great potential to compromise the safety of the whole unit.