Marina Siles
English 1109 at 10:30, M-W
November 16, 2020
Research Response Exercise
I chose to research more on Barbara Butler who was an FMF Corpsman on page 166. I actually have never heard of this occupation prior to this profile. Fleet Marine Force (FMF) Corpsman is just a group of Marines whose medical care was assigned to someone specifically. Barbara was among one of the six first women in the Navy to go FMF which will start and pave the path for generations to come along with breaking the stereotype of women only being able to do certain occupations while also dealing with sexist comments from who she worked with. My favorite line from her profile is, “Later I reported for my first field assignment, they looked at me and said, “When did females go FMF?!” I had eighty-five Marines that I was responsible for—and I was the only female out there.” (Callings 167).
This made me want to look into how many women are now FMF Corpsman since her time in 1977. Although I could not find much on the number of women that specific field, I did more research on women in the Marine’s in general. Looking at some articles it does show that women have come a long way yet still face challenges. A New York Times article states, “Today, women make up 8 percent of the United States Marine force, the lowest percentage of any military branch. Their challenges have been well-documented.” (par. 6). Through this article it shows how each gender are treated, more so than I thought.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/24/us/female-marines-parris-island-crucible.html
This is Camp Lejeune where Barbara now lives and mentions at the end of her profile. Right by in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
Marina, I like your research and line of thinking and it leads me to even more questions: Are there roles for men and women in the Marines that get separated by physical strength and physiology? How did the FMF and Marines and Navy build this partnership? One thing about research is it really leads to more questions and more learning! Also like your picture of Camp LeJuene as I have heard of it so many times but never could picture it. Now I can! Thanks much for the thoughtful post.
ReplyDeleteHi Marina, I liked how you mentioned that women in the Marines still face challenges in this area of the forces. It made me think that what other challenges do women in each branch face? Are they this strict with the rules? Awesome job!
ReplyDeleteYou had a very interesting topic for this research post, it's shocking to me that the Marines still segregate women and men. It just shows that even though we've come along way from sexism along those lines, it still exists in very prominent areas like the military and you really brought that to light for me.
ReplyDeleteHi Marina, Your topic is really interesting to me. I think that it is so cool that she decided to become what she is today even though there might be difficulties that women face in the armed forces.
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