Review Essay Historically, women have been excluded from combat roles. Ostensibly, this is because men, who have always considered themselves better and stronger than women, believed that women could not handle the responsibility of holding a combat position and that women were breaking the norms of socially constructed gender that had been put in place. According to Nicole Dombrowski, “no other topic concerning the role of women in war generates as much debate as the question of the active participation of women in combat units.” The benefits of expanding the role of women in the military benefit not only women but also service members. In comparison, the disadvantages of expanding women's roles are generally disadvantages for men within the military. The Disadvantages of Expanding Women's Roles in the Military Society has imposed strict gender norms on men and women and these norms are meant to be rigid and fixed. Yet when women fought for the right to be part of the military, they challenged gender norms. Throughout our class's readings, one of the main and recurring drawbacks to why women were excluded from combat roles was that they challenged social gender norms. According to Segal, it is difficult to include women in the military because of the social construction of gender; women must be seen as evolving to adapt to the military. Dowler also claims that women who fight are "out of place" in terms of acceptable gender norms. She says that even today, combat roles are only defined as such if women do not occupy that specific role. Dombrowski also says it is fascinating to see how the male-dominated military institution expresses its fear of women middle of paper ......fr to female soldiers. Coming back to the last one In fact, there are always sexual distractions in any career field, so why is it used to limit the integration of women into the military, when most cases of violations of a sexual nature are committed by male soldiers? Military women are more vulnerable than men because they are the ones raped by their soldiers. Marti Ribeiro was raped by her colleague. She tried to report it but if she pressed charges she would be charged because she left her gun unattended in a combat zone. To add, Lieut. Kelly Flinn was the first woman to pilot a B-52 bomber and was accused of having a sexual affair with a civilian. This is why officials oppose the integration of women into the army; they believe it endangers them and the cohesion of the unit which endangers the nation..