Helen Vozenilek

About the Author: Helen Vozenilek is an electrician in Oakland, California.

Six women were among the U.S. military personnel who died in the Persian Gulf war. I do not feel joyful about this equal-opportunity employment. Scores of thousands of Iraqis are dead, that country is in total ruin, Arab-Israeli tensions are further heightened and the entire Gulf region is awash in black rain. I do not feel proud that women made up 6 percent of the U.S. military forces that wrought this damage and destruction.

During the eight years of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, 7,500 women served in the U.S. forces. In eight months, the number of women deployed in the Persian Gulf was more than 30,000. Feminists are ambivalent about their assessment of this 400 percent growth of women in...