IT ONLY GOT TOUGHER . . .

 

"I went to Fort Bragg -

the toughest military post."

Laurie moved from Greene, NY to Fort Bragg in North Carolina to begin her basic training. At this time basic training was separated by gender. It turned out that Laurie’s group of all-females was the last to ever be separated from the men. Some of the physical requirements for women were modified. They were only required to finish a one-mile run instead of a two mile run for their physical training test. Also,the standard for push-ups and sit-ups was lowered for the women.

 

"I honestly didn’t know if I was

going to be able to make it."

After basic training, integration occurred which meant equal standards for everyone leaving women at a disadvantage. The drill sergeants were tougher because they had only dealt with only men and training with the Marines made the situation even more difficult. As it was, there were only a handful of women compared to quite a few hundred men. Some women chose to use pregnancy as an easy way out as circumstances continued to get harder. Not only was it physically demanding there was a large degree of harassment directed towards the women. Horrific harassment, sadly enough, was a large obstacle of military involvement for women.

 

"Probably more then you girls could imagine, but you have

to remember it was a time frame when women weren’t

equal with men. And you take a woman and you put

her in what they considered an all male's world in those days.

They don’t look at you. They assumed you were one of two

things. Most of them were."

 

As defined by the military, sexual harassment is any unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. When submission to, or rejection of such conduct is made, either explicitly or implicitly, a term or condition of a person’s job, pay, or career, is used as a basis for career or employment decisions affecting this person. Or when such conduct interferes with an individual’s performance or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.

 

CLICK TO CONTINUE