Martha McSally: Women in the military get pregnant to “skirt” deployment – By Roger Sollenberger (Salon) / July 8 2020
“You know, go work at Walmart if you want to do that,” said Martha McSally in a 2007 lecture at Duke University
Arizona Republican senator and former Air Force combat pilot Martha McSally once published an academic paper in which she said military servicewomen should be counseled against the “foolishness of entering into a lifetime commitment (motherhood)” to avoid deployment, and called for the Pentagon to repeal the policy that allows women to use pregnancy as an excuse to “skirt” their commitment.
The article, titled “Women in Combat: Is the Current Policy Obsolete?” appeared in a 2007 edition of the Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy. At the time, McSally, the first female combat pilot in U.S. history — and the first-ever losing Senate candidate to immediately receive a Senate seat — was pursuing a second graduate degree at Air War College.
She later expanded on the article in a lecture at the Duke University School of Law, which hosts a full video on its website. A clip about the pregnancy issue can be seen here.
State polls have shown McSally consistently down by double digits against Democratic challenger Mark Kelly, the astronaut husband of former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords. Last month, Kelly was up 15 points among women.
McSally ran for an open Senate seat in Arizona in 2018, but was narrowly defeated by Democrat Kyrsten Sinema. Then McSally was appointed by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to fill the seat formerly held by the late Sen. John McCain. She could end up losing two U.S. Senate races in the same state within two years, a rare accomplishment.
Continue to article: https://www.salon.com/2020/07/08/martha-mcsally-women-in-the-military-get-pregnant-to-skirt-deployment/
