The American army, in which women play an increasingly prominent role, announced changes to the bylaws, and now, instead of the obligatory short haircut or tied up in a tight bun of hair, girls can now choose different hairstyles and wear short ponytails and pigtails in everyday service and in combat and even long tails are allowed during the exercises, which do not interfere with wearing a helmet.
The new addition to the charter takes effect this Friday and applies to 127,000 women in the US Army and National Guard.
According to National Guard Captain Joanna McFadden, who has traveled to many countries, including hot spots in 22 years of service, the old rules not only deprived women of their individuality, but also prevented them from fulfilling their military duties.
She assures that the statutory bun, in which she had to remove her thick curly hair all this time, pushed her helmet over her eyes, so that “when you lie down and prepare to shoot, you can't see anything.”
The new rules also allow women in the US Army to wear highlights, lipstick and nail polish as long as they are “not overly eccentric or quirky.” Earrings may also be worn outside the combat and exercise zone.
Short haircuts for women were prescribed by the wartime charter
For the first time, female military personnel are allowed to breastfeed their children while on duty “wherever the woman and her child have the right to be,” and they will be given special T-shirts with cuts that can be worn under camouflage.
The number of women in the US Army has grown steadily since the end of World War II, although at first they were given secondary roles as nurses and secretaries, which did not imply a rise in rank or a rise in salary.
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Establishing a family was considered a violation of the bylaws, and until 1972, if a woman on active duty became pregnant, she was automatically fired. The practice ended after young attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg won a case against the Department of Defense in the Supreme Court.
Since then, the number of women in the armed forces has increased from two to about 15%, and in recent years they have begun to be recruited into virtually all combat units and promoted to high positions.
The army especially welcomes black women in the military. Nearly a third of all American female military personnel are African American, although they make up only 15% of the country's total female population.
The latest changes to the charter were made on the recommendation of a committee of senior and junior army officials, which, among others, included 10 black and 4 white women and one Hispanic woman.
The members of the committee took into account the conclusions of the doctors, who admitted that tight bundles often lead to hair loss, headaches and other problems that adversely affect the health of soldiers.
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While the Army has been slow to meet the demands and demands of women in the past, today it fully appreciated the importance of every soldier having a say, Sgt. Major Michael Greenston, who represents all Army NCOs in the top leadership of the Armed Forces, told the New York Times. US forces.
“When I first joined the army, they used to say that there is only green color,” recalls Greenston, who began his service in 1987 with the rank of private gunner. Then it was believed that the army should treat all soldiers equally, regardless of gender, race and individual characteristics. And, by his own admission, when someone told him that seeing only green means not noticing a person, it became a real insight for him.
Since then, the honored veteran, who, by his own admission, was at first very difficult in the army, because his mother was white and his father was black, began to actively campaign to ensure that the army does not suppress individuality. He is convinced that every soldier who feels like in a big family in the army will better fulfill his duties, and this will only strengthen the armed forces.
“Our goal is to create standards that are suitable for everyone,” Greenston said ahead of the bylaws announcement.
The male military, encouraged by the new indulgences for women, bombarded the sergeant major with questions about when they would be allowed to wear beards. Currently, in the US military, only 550 soldiers are allowed to wear a beard for religious reasons. The rest are allowed only a neat mustache.
Greenstone promised to raise this issue at the next stage of the revision of the charter, noting that the army also knows how to learn, and “if we did not do something in the first hundred years, it does not mean that we will not do it in the next hundred.”
