Of more than 4,000 female students who plan to walk across the
stage at commencement this spring, a handful have chosen to enter a
field that has traditionally been male-dominated.
Donna Kim, a fifth-year Asian humanities student, is one of
those few.
A member of the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at
UCLA for two years and an enlisted soldier in the Army National
Guard for the past five years, Kim will be commissioned as a second
lieutenant, the lowest army officer rank, upon graduation.
In six months, she expects to be on active duty as a field
artillery officer in Korea, where she will lead and control field
artillery troops and combined armed forces during land combat.
Kim said it was her first choice to be stationed in Korea
because she was born there and will be able to visit relatives she
has not seen since coming to the U.S. at the age of 10.
Women can serve in every branch of the military except the
infantry and armor branches, which are essentially frontline
soldiers, because it is more difficult to achieve gender
integration in those branches, said Thomas Higginson, army captain
and assistant professor of military science.
“Just the nature in which they are built, the closeness,
the living conditions ““ it’s difficult to accommodate
both genders,” he said. “There are no walls; there are
no stalls.”
Tamara DeJesus, a second-year history student in Army ROTC, said
she understands that because they are physically different from
men, women are not allowed to become involved in certain fields of
the military.
“A lot of females still want to get there, but in
actuality, it’s really difficult,” she said.
“We’re built differently for combat and we have
different needs.”
Higginson said Kim’s situation is unique because not many
women go into her field of the military.
“She is kind of breaking ground there,” Higginson
said.
Higginson said it is common for women going into the military to
become medical service officers, military police and engineers.
Many women often fill support roles in the special forces and
military intelligence.
Though Kim said the field she plans to enter is more
male-dominated than others, so far she has not felt many negative
effects of the gender divide during her time in the military.
“They don’t separate (women). They don’t say,
“˜You can’t do this.’ It’s always been very
equal,” she said.
Despite being a minority in the military, women should not be
deterred from enlisting, Kim said.
“I think a lot of females have the idea that
“˜I’m a girl; I don’t see myself doing
that,'” she said. “It’s all in your head.
If you put your mind to it, you can do it.”
Still, her career path has not always proved easy. She said she
typically wakes up at 5 a.m. to do physical training and attend a
military science class, in addition to other classes during the
day. Many of her weekends consist of field-training exercises and
training in land navigations, where she learns how to navigate with
a compass and a map.
“It’s time-consuming, but it’s all worth
it,” she said.
Kim said after she completes her required service, she is not
sure whether she will pursue a career with the military. She said
she plans to go into a communications job dealing with radios and
satellites, and may also consider going into a career offered by
the Army, such as military intelligence.
In either case, she said she expects that her ROTC and Army
experience will be beneficial.
“If I don’t decide to (have a military career) in 20
years, I’ll use what I learned in the Army and apply it to my
civilian life,” she said.
Kim has taken on leadership roles in ROTC and has completed
basic training. As ROTC battalion commander, she oversaw the ROTC
programs at UCLA and California State University, Northridge.
“My impression of her is that she wants to make a
contribution,” Higginson said. “She loves the country
and she probably feels it’s her turn to give back.”
Kim said though she knows there may be more obstacles to deal
with, she is looking forward to her career.
“I mean who gets to shoot a weapon? Who gets to go and
throw a grenade? You don’t do that in everyday life. The
military is about gaining experience. It’s a learning
process, a growing process,” she said.