ABSTRACT
This chapter is the driving reason for the author's interest in this research agenda. It demonstrates the myriad reasons why women join the military, the support structure thereof they may have in place, and to finally honor their service and sacrifice. Some families were proud of their daughter's ultimate sacrifice, while a few spoke guardedly to reporters about the distorted purpose of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A Marxist feminist analysis of women in the military, would certainly focus upon the socio-economic challenges many young women may face in trying to identify ways to finance their college education. In addition to Reserve Officer Training Corps, the attraction of the G. I. Bills educational benefits certainly impacted many young men and women's decision to enlist. As analyzed through the radical and difference feminist lenses, a cohort of US military women are succeeding only because they are adapting to and reifying the hyper masculine ethos and behavioral attributes of the military organization.
