Two Views

By Marycatherine Krause

"...There is no force to the plea, 'If women vote they must fight.' Moreover, war is not the normal state of the human family in its higher development, but merely a feature of barbarism lasting on through the transition of the race, from the savage to the scholar."

Uncanny, isn't it, that Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one hundred odd years ago, so aptly described the current ERA/draft dodge? Or is it?

"If women are equal under the law they must fight." Strong conservative sentiment against women's civil, economic,.and reproductive rights has been channeled into this argument against the adop-

tion of the Equal Rights Amendment. The emotional force of this argument, of course, has been augmented with liberal space donated by the establishment press. Photos of helmeted, fatigueclad women toting M-16s and articles that focus on women's role in the military not only sell newspapers and news magazines but, in effect, confine the discussion of women's rights and obligations to men-generals, judges, legislators, and administration officials.

In this context, the American Civil Liberties Union suit against peacetime registration-that the registration is unconstitutional because it excludes women-is questionable. Are women being discriminated against, or are men?

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The argument that registration discriminates against women depends upon concealing the reciprocal relation between rights and obligations in a democracy. Civilian rights are understood as the justification for military obligation. Women, not specifically recognized constitutionally, have been systematically denied our civil, political, and. economic rights. Then what possible justification is there for imposing military obligations on women? The second argument, that the registration discriminates against men, depends upon ignoring the facts of history. Women do not and have not shared the privileges of full citizenship. In theory at least, men do. It is true that in practice, those men with the least share in citizenship-Blacks, other

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minority men, and those who cannot afford to reject the role of soldier-take the brunt of patriotism." . However, this is no reason to entangle women in the same contradiction.

The ACLU argument that the registration is discriminatory and, as such, unconstitutional is at best naive. This "cart before the horse" approach to women's rights and obligations indicates a disregard for our struggle. I dignifies the emotionalism of those who seek to confine women to traditional roles; it confuses the issue of equal rights for women; and it may encourage women to settle for what little they have rather than give up "special status" in the event of an ensuing war.

The ACLU may be successful in its bid to defer

"Although I oppose the drafting of any persons, I believe that if women are to be drafted that they should

be portrayed as

strong, powerful, and equal."

-Joye Gulley

"Womon with M-16"

painting by Joye D. Gulley

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peacetime registration by asking the courts to send it back to Congress. If the latest round of Congressional debate on women's inclusion is any indication, the possibility of a registration for women is not imminent.

But the spectre of war has been raised and with it the call.for women to prevent it. What better way to divert us from the struggle for liberation?

Women are getting involved in women's anti-draft organizations and women are recruiting their sisters, as women, to oppose the registration. Let's consider some of the reasons women give for organizing as women to oppose registration:

Because women are the mothers of the soldiers who fight and die.

Because women are the victims of war. Women, are raped and killed-by enemy soldiers.

+ Because women suffer the consequences of decreased social spending and increased military budgets.

Because women cannot pursue equality in a repressive, wartime society.

Because the draft is involuntary servitude with which we are all too familiar,

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Because women must use their influence to deter military aggression.

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Because women have a responsibility as citizens to affect the course of the nation.

This seems to be a convincing set of arguments for

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women as women to join the anti-registration effort. Under closer scrutiny, however, objections can be raised to each.

Women are raped and killed by enemy soldiers, but aren't women frequently raped and murdered here in peacetime Cleveland?

Women are hurt by wartime social spending cuts; we are also hurt by the imbalance between social and military spending in our peacetime economy.

The effect of war on women's status in society is paradoxical. Wartime economies depend heavily on women. During a war, women are often more employable than at any other time. Women, a la "Rosie the Riveter" in World War II, are valued contributors to the war effort but are yanked back into line when the soldiers become civilians. again. The following pre-World War II British news item illustrates the point:

...woman has too much liberty. It is probable that this so-called liberty came with the war, when women assumed responsibilities so far unknown to them. They did splendid service during those days. Unfortunately, they were praised and petted out of all proportion to the value of their performances. (From Virginia Woolf's Three Guineas).

The draft is a form of involuntary servitude. No wages for housework is a form of involuntary servitude imposed on half this nation's population in peacetime as well as in war. Will this anti-registration effort contribute to ending women's enforced economic dependence on men?

None of these arguuments for women as women to oppose the registration is compelling. The conditions for women during war are also those that exist in peacetime.

In Three Guineas (1938), Virginia Woolf examines the myth of "Woman's influence." Woolf Tejects it at one point because an independent opinion is based upon an independent income. Women in England were supported by fathers or husbands or supported themselves with low-paying jobs. Forty years later American women earn only about half of a man's dollar.

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•Some women are the mothers of boys and men who fight and die in war. But aren't fathers also responsible for the well-being of their sons? This appeal to women as mothers, rather than the people of both sexes as parents, masks an appeal to "woman's better nature." It elicits the Madonna-like image of women as mother, wife, nurturer, soul of civilization.

Each of the reasons for women as women to join the anti-registration effort carry objections, probably because there aren't any good ones. It is not by virtue of sex but of political life that people, as citizens, concern themselves with questions of war.

Virginia Woolf, thinking about women as citizens, suggested indifference to the impending war:

'Our country,' she will say, 'throughout the greater part of its history has treated me as a slave; it has denied me education or any share in its possessions. 'Our' country still ceases to be mine if I marry a foreigner. 'Our' country denies me the means of protecting myself.... Therefore if you insist upon fighting to protect me, or 'pur' 'country, let it be understood, soberly and rationally between us, that you are fighting to gratify a sex instinct which I cannot share; to procure benefits which I have not shared and probably will not share; but not to gratify my instincts or to protect myself or my country. For,' the outsider will say, 'in fact, as a woman, I have no country.'

Women have always been affected by registration, draft, and war. We will be, until we have the right to 'be involved in making the decisions that precede registration and a possible war.

September, 1980/What She Wants/Page 9