Report: Too many whites, men leading military

"Seventy-seven percent of senior officers in the active-duty military are white, while only 8 percent are black, 5 percent are Hispanic and 16 percent are women, the report by an independent panel said, quoting data from September 2008."- Pauline Jelinek - The Associated Press

This article caught my attention because in my eyes I thought the military was already pretty equal in diversity. I may have agreed with this article 20-40 years ago but in the area I grew up in I have seen an equal amount of ethnicities in the military, that may be so because San Diego is a pretty diverse county. I forget that theres other parts of the United States where the military may be a majority of Caucasians joining. One factor that is believable in the article is that the majority of those who serve in the military are men, it still can not be ignored that the number of women serving has steadily increased over the years. More and More women serve in the military now than they did when I was born, in fact is more accepted for me to be able to join today than it would have been for my own mother to join at my age.

In the article it mentions that the reason that women a majority of women are unable to receive high ranks is because of their inability to serve in combat units. "Promotion and job opportunities have favored those with battlefield leadership credentials"-Jelinek. Do the women who serve have a choice in being in the combat units? or are they discouraged to be? If it is the choice of the woman to not fight in combat for the reason why men still hold a majority of the high ranks received in the military, than isn't that the fault of the women? I not insinuating that men should be the majority of the leaders in the military, but I am justifying the fact that if its because the women are the ones who chose not to fight, than its not the issue of equality. I hope to be one of the high ranking women in the force one day.