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- Title
ELIMINATING "BUILT-IN HEADWINDS": STRENGTHENING THE MILITARY BY INTEGRATING THE CONDITION OF PREGNANCY.
- Authors
RAINES GREENFIELD, CAROLINE
- Abstract
In March of 2020, Fox News host Tucker Carlson took direct aim at the military's development of a maternity flight suit by calling the initiative a "mockery" of the U.S. military and suggesting that the feminization of the military will lead to weakness and failure. The Pentagon quickly responded with "revulsion" at the sexist remarks and an unequivocal defense of uniformed military women's contributions. This dramatic exchange highlights the important questions of why and how the military should include the condition of pregnancy, and by extension, potentially all women, within its ranks. In 2020, forty-two years after the adoption of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, the Secretary of Defense wrote pregnancy discrimination protection into existence for military women. On the heels of this development, Congress mandated that the military improve policy for pregnant service members by increasing individual determinations, improving accommodations, and eliminating the harmful impacts of stereotyping. This article makes the case that the integration of pregnancy is necessary for both equality and national security, and illustrates how pregnancy policy can evolve using the example of the United States Air Force pilot. I illuminate how the duty environment is embedded with legacy structures built for the stereotypical male and how it can be redesigned to better fit the needs of the modern force. I use Equal Protection law (which applies differently because of military deference) and statutory discrimination law (which is inapplicable to the military) as a model to tailor policy. In Part One, I trace the history of women in the military through current pregnancy policy and discuss policy implications for the military and for women. In Part Two, I examine the doctrine of military necessity, pregnancy equality law, and the theory and logic underlying current law. Part Three utilizes this model to design a duty environment that accounts for pregnancy as a normal condition of service. This goes beyond current law in some areas to recommend policy in line with Pregnant Workers Fairness laws, the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (2008), disparate impact theory, and comparable worth models. I make the analysis tractable by comprehensively upgrading four specific areas of policy: duty, assignment, promotion, and leave.
- Subjects
MILITARY uniforms; PREGNANCY; WOMEN military personnel; STEREOTYPES; EQUALITY; EQUAL rights; UNITED States. Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978; AMERICANS with Disabilities Act of 1990
- Publication
Harvard Journal of Law & Gender, 2022, Vol 45, Issue 1, p63
- ISSN
1558-4356
- Publication type
Article