Dear future President,

I am writing you this letter because I want to talk about a serious issue going on in the US. The issue I’m talking about is women having equal rights in the military as men. Women enlistment rates increased about 5% in 2010. There are about as many men as there are women in the Armed Forces, but women are not allowed to fight on the ground. While the number of women serving their country drastically increased over the past century, the policy regarding their service only changed incrementally. The fact of that matter is that no American women, no matter how strong, smart, courageous, loyal, and otherwise qualified, is permitted to fight on the ground in our ways.

Women aren’t given the same rights as men by not letting them fight on the ground. The cause of women not having equal rights in the military is that women enlistment rates are increasing every year by women wanting to protect and serve their country and people, mostly women, protesting for equal rights or people saying that women shouldn’t be in the military at all because they’re women and women produce kids and cook and clean and women wanting to show that they can do everything that a man can do. In 2000, females made up 18.8% of the active duty force and in 2014, female officers made up 23.6% of total officers but only 8.3% of flag officers, according to the Army in 2015.

The effect, however, is that women are claiming to be sexually harassed, sexual assaulted, raped, etc. Most of these claims are false but some are warranted. The Armed Forces have been affected by women suing them because of those claims even if most are false claims. Some laws have opened up many more positions to women; in the Army, only five military occupational career fields remained closed to women.

Granted, some people disagree with the topic that women should have equal rights in the military because they think women shouldn’t be in the military at all, and they think women are not able to be in the military because they lack the physical ability to be in the Armed Forces. But some people, mostly women but some men, think that women should have equal rights in the military because women are able to do the same as men in the military if given the chance to prove themselves.

What can be done to give women equal rights in the military as men, is to give women a chance to prove themselves and let women fight on the ground alongside men. And, pass laws that allow women to do the occupational career field that, at the moment, remained closed to women. Just because they’re women, doesn’t mean they aren’t sacrificing their lives to keep us safe just as men are.

In conclusion, women should have equal rights in the military as men because there are about as many men as there are women in the Armed Forces, and women are not allowed to fight on the ground. Women should have equal rights in the military because they are protecting our country, just like men, but are not given the chance to go further.