Women Officers: Pros and cons

Ref:
1. Women Officers: Facts and Fiction
2. Women Officers: More Facts

I agree with Major Archana Lokeshwar.
I did read the article by Maj Gen Mrinal Suman and gave it the treatment it deserved... EDITED ... .
I have had the privilege of having commanded two frontline airbases. Both had lady officers in all branches of officer cadre.I also had lady officers serving in various capacities at Air Force Academy and Air Force Station, Bidar.
No lady officer ever flinched from any duty given to her. In fact, I as the AOC would try to be protective but the gutsy young ladies would say "Sir, Dont treat us differently. We will do all that the male officers do in the line of duty (including night duties)". And to their credit they did perform their duties diligently with utmost care and attention to details.
Of course there were a few black sheep, but then there are more such examples from the male bastion. It would be incorrect to say that lady officers are a burden. In most cases they are an asset just like in the case of male officers.
To have an opinion based on a couple of indifferent episodes would be very unfair. I had a few male officers who ought to have retired as cadets, but then based on those experiences I cant write off the entire male officer cadre.
Best Wishes n Regards,
Brig Ashok D Chhibbar (Retd)

Bipin Trivedi
My dear General Suman and Major Archana,
While I've neither the academic credentials of the general nor the gender qualification of the major, having worked with lady officers as Adjt MCTE, 2IC 15 Corps Engg Sig Regt, CO WCSR and CO 2TTR, I presume to be adequately, albeit barely, qualified to comment on the desirability or otherwise of lady officers in the defence services.
The right question, to my mind, is not "Should we have lady officers in the defence services?" but "What segments of the population ought to be recruited in the defence forces of a democracy?"

The armed forces of a democracy, like all other institutions of the state, must recruit from all segments of the society. They must recruit form all segments of society to be national, to obtain a buy in form every segment of the population, a dire necessity in the time of total war. It is for this reason that the army recruits uniformly from all over the country even though the army is deployed primarily in the North. To cite an extreme example, the army recruits from Andaman & Nicobar despite the fact that a soldier who travels to Andaman & Nicobar on annual leave ends up spending an inordinately long time traveling.
Women form an increasingly important constituency in this nation as is evident from their growing role in the workplace. They must accordingly be accommodated in the defence services. It is for the services to work out the modalities of recruitment, training, employment and discharge. I refuse to believe that women can't make a
positive contribution to the defence services or that the defence services are too rigid to accommodate women amongst their ranks. My own limited experience suggests that lady officers merge into the team and take on their share of the load. I think we ought to be looking for ways to increase the participation of women in the defence services rather than questioning the limited representation that we have.
Col Bipin Trivedi (Retd)

Ramachandran Mahesh
Sent: 30 March 2010 12:19
I entirely agree with the contents of Gen Suman's article. When facts are stated as they should indeed be, it does sound politically incorrect. I have served in and commanded units posted with lady officers. No one can complain on their capabilities in certain roles . It is in combat roles that the problem arises . A few points:
Need to remember that there is a huge difference between equality and similarity. While no one argues against equality, can there ever be similarity between the two sexes. If that was the case, you and i would be pregnant - sorry to sound crude. Just by putting on pants, aunty does not become uncle.
A British medical study has said that menstruating females have huge problems in high G air manoueveres. Flying a passenger aircraft from Delhi to Mumbai is one thing - manoevering Su 30s or F 18s in the face of enemy fire is quite another.
When it comes to their own security even the offices of National Council For women have male security personnel. By the way has anyone seen female security in any residential societies or banks or even ATMs ? With this confidence level, we want to trust them with our national security !! Even offices of NDTV (Barkha) and CNN/IBN (Sagarika) have predominantly male security with one odd female for frisking duties.
Our VVIPs and celebrities including the likes of Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, sushma Swaraj have only male body guards/ security - why?
People quote American and allied Armies where women are in combat roles. This is a huge fallacy, since out of the 1800 odd persons killed in combat in Iraq and Afganisthan, not a single person was a female.(As already brought out by Gen Suman)
For decades there have been separate set of rules for men and woman even in sports - including golf and these are for very good reasons.
Ask any male YO and he will tell you that his female counterpart gets awards and citations for doing a fraction of the work done by her male colleagues.
Ask our MS branch guys about the number of requests they have for spouse postings from these so called "Equally capable for combat" ladies .
When we moved for OP Parakram in Dec 2001, we had to recall a lot of our guys on leave as per the SOP by sending telegrams. Can someone tell me how to recall people from maternity leave ?!!
These are not teething problems. For the last 17 years, barring a few exceptions, lady officers have not done themselves proud even in non combat roles. If not nipped in the bud right now, national security will take a huge beating.
Col (Retd) R Mahesh

ASP Vinod ASP
Sent: 30 March 2010 12:52
Dear Major Archana Lokeshwar,
1. Thank you for having the courage to highlight some very twisted ideas many men have concerning women. More so, it is regrettable that some of these persons with stunted thinking are in the Army posing to speak for all the Officers of this fair organisation.
2. One must continue to strive for equality and justice, no matter who or what the opposition may be. I am completely with and support all women who fight for their right due in society and in life.
3. All of us have been made equal in the eyes of the Maker. It is only persons with small minds, misogynists and those who have no faith n their own abilities that drum up fanciful visions of their own making and pass them of as “facts”.
4. I happen to be a fourth generation officer in the Army, my son hopes to make it a fifth generation; so I do have some background when I say that there are a large No. of fair-minded Officers in the Army. It was their open-minded approach that got ladies into the Army in the first place. Those right-thinking individuals are still there. We will ensure that our daughters and our lady officers get an even-handed deal.
5. Change in our Indian mind-set has to begin outside the Forces, within our families to accept the girl child, women and ladies as equals. More power to this change.
Yours sincerely
Col ASP Vinod