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Matea Peček

Jasna Poljak Rehlicki, PhD

American War Literature

11 January, 2018

Being a Woman in a Man’s World: Objectification and Everyday Hardship Endured by the

"Weaker Sex"

Kayla Williams, one of the former army members, tries to depict the treatment of

women in a profession characteristic for men. Her memoirs, Love my Rifle More Than You,

serve as a representation of everyday life in the military from a female perspective.

Passing through hardships of army life, women need to cope with sexism, double standards,

find a way to deal with basic female needs while surrounded by men, and stand side by side

with their fellow soldiers in difficult physical situations; Kayla Williams puts effort into

presenting her own insight in a woman’s life in army.

The book opens with a harsh sentence, indicating the seriousness of the impact which

military life leaves on women: “Sometimes, even now, I wake up before dawn and forget I am

not a slut” (Williams 13). Being greatly outnumbered my men, Williams and other female

soldiers often lose their self-appreciation. The treatment of women comes down to treating

them as objects used in order to fulfill sexual desires, instead of seeing them as friends and

colleagues who bravely try to do their job; That leads to disrespecting the whole female sex,

taking away their basic values as human beings. They are not seen as different individuals,

their characteristics, interests, appearances and other things that make them unique- disappear,

and only thing that is left is the sexual ability: “A woman at war: you're automatically a
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desirable commodity, and a scarce one at that. We call it ‘Queen for a Year’. Even the

unattractive girls start to act stuck-up” (Williams 19).

Women are disrespected and generalized based on each other’s behavior, actions of one affect

the treatment of other women: “Guys who’d meet me and say: Hey Kayla, I’m told all MI

females really like to…” (Williams 18). On the other hand, women sometimes use the

attention of men to make their lives easier, letting them help with physical work, receiving

extra food and similar favors: “You could get things easier, and you could get out of things

easier” (Williams 20). Double standards are also constant- men are praised for what women

are frowned upon, mainly sexual actions. All of this disrespecting and overall sexism left

them alert to shield themselves of unwanted male attention, Williams also tries to protect

herself from possible flirtatious advances by talking about her ex-boyfriend as a current: “This

had the added benefit of making me “taken,” and it prevented local guys from hitting on me”

(Williams 110).

Women in army also have problems with basic needs, that is again due to being

outnumbered, and therefore not considered in everyday events. Privacy is one of those needs,

and there is not much privacy for women in army. While urinating outside, they are exposed

and many times watched unwillingly: “You just dropped your pants and squatted with your

butt toward the truck on the side with the fewest people” (Williams 84).

In conclusion, Kayla Williams put a big part of her life into her book, and by that she

portrayed closely the treatment of outnumbered women in army, and their everyday struggles.

It was not easy for them to maintain their self-appreciation and stay professional while

constantly being seen as sexual objects, and that caused them to become vigilant.

Furthermore, being a woman in army was not easy physically, nor practically, mainly in basic

need fulfillment. Williams gives her honest insight on these problems and talks about them

freely, introducing her own army experiences.

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Works Cited:

Williams, Kayla. Love My Rifle More Than You. W.W. Norton & Company, 2005.