January 24, 2013

Hundreds of thousands of additional jobs in front-line combat units will be officially opened to women under a new policy announced by the United States Department of Defense (DOD) today. The groundbreaking decision by outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta effectively reverses a 1994 ban on female troops serving in combat roles. In a letter to Panetta earlier this month, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had stated that, “the time has come to … eliminate all unnecessary gender-based barriers to service.” In 2012, the military had opened about 14,000 jobs in combat units to women. Also that year, the American Civil Liberties Union had filed suit against the DOD to overturn the 1994 ban.

Women service members and groups representing them had long argued against the ban, in part because combat positions often offer higher pay and are considered important to advancement in the military. And in reality, women, who make up about 14 percent of the American military, have played a major role in combat operations in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan–mainly in armed patrols, fighter planes, and helicopters. Women have also served as medics and intelligence officers as well as in many other positions. However, these women were officially “attached” but not “assigned” to their units. More than 130 service women have died and more than 800 have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. But women were excluded from more than 200,000 military jobs under the “direct ground combat exclusion,” which prevented women from serving in units below the brigade level that could be involved in armed fighting. (Brigades usually consist of several battalions, combat units of 500 to 800 troops).

Previously, the Army, the largest branch of the U.S. military, excluded women from about 25 percent of active-duty jobs. (U.S. Army)

Many service members and members of Congress praised the decision. Senator Patty Murray (D., Washington), the chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, called the decision a “historic step for equality” that recognizes the role women play in the military. “Thousands of women in the military have already found themselves in combat situations,” she said. “Recent wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan have lacked a real front line, and women serving there have come under fire and had to fight back alongside male counterparts.” However, some supporters of the ban criticized the new policy as “social experimentation and political correctness.”

Many of the previously excluded positions are expected to be available to women this year. The various branches of the U.S. military have until 2016 to submit petitions recommending jobs they think should remain closed to women.

Additional articles in World Book:

• Edmonds, Sarah Emma Evelyn
• Pitcher, Molly
• Walker, Mary Edwards

Websites:

• Women in the U.S. Army (http://www.army.mil/women/)
• Women in the Navy (http://www.navy.com/inside/winr.html)