[The Saucepan Man]

Why not speak of the U.S. Armed Forces?

Well, you said it yourself:

A totally seperate and non-Tolien related discussion.

I just don't see any analogy (sorry, applicability [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] ) between the structure of US (or any country's) military forces and the formation of the Fellowship. Quite possibly, if we were discussing military forces in ME, this might be relevant. For example, why did the Rohirrim provide weapons training for their women (or at least their noblewomen such as Eowyn) but not include them in their armies.

But this is a discussion of why there were no women in the Fellowship. The Fellowship was not formed in the same way that one might put a military cadre together. It was formed almost spontaneously (OK, not quite as spontaneously as in the film [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] , but relatively so nevertheless) from those that were available and willing to go. And its formation also relied to a fairly significant degree on pre-existing friendships/relationships (the hobbits).

I see no reason, in ME terms, why, if there were females who were present at the Council of Elrond (or, indeed in Rivendell at that time) who were willing to join the Quest, whose abilities were trusted and respected by the likes of Gandalf, Elrond and Aragorn and/or who had developed strong bonds of friendship with existing members, they should not have gone. None of the various arguments put on this thread for excluding females convinces me otherwise.

However, the fact is that there were no such female characters (of which we are made aware) fitted this description. Arwen comes closest, but only in her film role. We know very little about how suitable "book" Arwen would have been for the Fellowship. And it seems unlikely to me, in any event, that Elrond would have sanctioned her becoming one of the Nine Walkers.

So, why were there no suitable female characters? Because that's the way JRRT wrote it. And I am sure that's because that is the way he felt it worked best. Possibly, in view of the time that he was writing, it would not have occurred to him to include a female character in the Fellowship. But I doubt that, given his development of Eowyn's character. No, I believe that he felt that the Fellowship worked best as an all-male outfit. Possibly, this is linked to his experiences of male comradeship in harrowing situations in WW1. Quite possibly there are other reasons. I do not know enough about his life to speculate (although others who have read biographies and/or the Letters might be able to assist further). But whatever the reason, it seems to me that that is the way he wanted it, so that is the way he wrote it.