A Tuesday Morning

Last Tuesday (or Monday, I'm not sure), in my political science class, I witnessed a very intense debate about roles of men vs. women from the battle-front to what kind of toys they played with as a child. I say witnessed because I was not an active speaker (I wish I had been, but I'm not blessed with a clear mind in intense moments), but let me tell you, my brain was spinning. I came into the classroom just as my (dear, liberal, feminist)teacher was discussing the military with a student from her 8:00 class. From what I understood, the student's argument to keep women out of the military was based on how much harder it would be to tell a mother that her daughter had died in active duty vs. her son. Not a good reason. And my teacher's argument was that men were afraid to give women the opportunity to be in combat because they they might prove themselves capable and get promoted to a higher rank which would cause them to earn more money, which would put them in positions of economic power and then we women would be on an equal intellectual level with elite men (members of congress, for example). She also argued that we were depriving women of their right to "equal treatment under the law." She also said that we value men's lives less that women's lives, because if we valued them equally, we would give them equal opportunity to prove themselves capable. I don't think it's a question of capability or inability and I believe that there is a fundamental difference between being treated "equally" and "the same." I'm just not sure what it is...