The United States has faced numerous threats to its sovereignty throughout this time, and

these dangers have persisted into the first decade of the twenty-first century, whether it may be
economical, technological, ideological, or political. In an effort to strengthen the American
military, Congress created the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) for the National Defense
Act of 1916. Army leadership consists of qualified officers. Through the establishment of ROTC
programs at colleges and institutions around the country, this act increased the Army's potential
for developing leaders outside of the conventional framework provided by the United States
Military Academy at West Point (Campbell, 2018). Since then, the number of universities
participating in the program and the number of US Army officers produced through it has
increased dramatically, so the ROTC is currently in charge of producing a significant fraction of
the yearly demand for newly commissioned officers beginning a military career. (United States
Army Cadet Command [USACC], 2013)

With the ROTC being implemented, different researchers have different opinions on the
idea of citizenship rights and obligations, particularly regarding national involvement. In a study
conducted, there has not been much research on how women fit into the national defense system
or the ROTC. Sociologists have then examined how persons choose to volunteer and what
influences them to do so while concentrating on their personal behavior and civic involvement.
The researchers focused only on how men fit into the national defense system and the ROTC, but
the scope for the women was not included, thus, the study was conducted to determine the
perception of ROTC Cadet’s to gender fairness, especially in the military service (Peavie, 2018).

Recent institutional studies of aspiring military officers surveyed cadets about their
perceptions of the distance between the civil and military areas. Ideological differences in
political conservatism caused this difference between cadets and their five civilian classmates in
their perception of civil and military duties. The Sondheimer et al. (2013) study hinted at the
force's future structure by examining the respondents' current perspectives. Cadets at the Military
Academy self-assessed for the survey-based study. Understanding the liberal versus conservative
preferences of cadets at the United States Military Academy  and the escalating trend toward
conservatism in the officer corps were the main goals of their research. It was a quantitative
study that was survey-based and relied on the participants' methods of self-evaluation. The
researchers wanted to know if the society of aspiring military officers thought of themselves
differently from the rest of American society. (Sondheimer et al., 2013).
References:

Campbell, A. (2017). Socialized Leader Development: A Phenomenological Study of the College

Army ROTC Student Perspective and Experience. Liberty University.
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/83112388.pdf

Peavie, B. (2018). College ROTC Cadets’ Perceptions of Gender Fairness With Selective Service
Registration. Walden University. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=7206&context=dissertations

Sondheimer, R. M., Toner, K., & Wilson, I. (2013). Cadet perceptions of military and civilian
ideology: A research note. Armed Forces & Society, 39(1), 124–134.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X12442304

United States Army Cadet Command Strategic Plan 2013, United States Army. (2013). US Army,
ADP 6-22. (2012). Army leadership. Retrieved from
http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/DR_pubs/dr_a/pdf/adp6_22_new.pdf