Still a Long Way to Go: Women in Combat

A woman on a bus showed me a roadmap of stitches going up and down her left thigh, calf and ankle. "I got shot in the leg." She said it as if she had dropped a drinking glass or gotten a flat tire. The woman was a U.S. soldier being moved to a treatment center in the U.S. after being shot in Iraq.

Nearly everyone knows someone in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard or the Marine Corps. Every time there is a hometown news program discussing the war, anxious friends and relatives keep an eye open in case someone they know is listed as hurt, missing in action or killed. 

The woman on the bus had family and friends back home worrying about her condition, but grateful that she survived. Her scars probably bewildered some; most everyone knows women are prohibited by federal law from being used in combat roles. A recent House Armed Services vote upheld this tradition, which many view as detrimental to women in general, and a major obstacle for women in the military.

I wore a military uniform for thirteen years; in all that time women in uniform have made strides in an environment that, at one time, was stereotypically male to the point of absurdity. The effect of those advances on the military is profound. The average military member is now required to take sensitivity training on sexual harassment, discrimination, and interpersonal relations. All that training would have been scoffed at twenty years ago as a waste of time.

In spite of the improvements, much work still needs to be done before the military can truly claim to operate in the 21st century. At present, outdated values still hold sway over policymakers and Department of Defense leadership. Women are unable to hold jobs directly related with military service. Direct combat positions are still male-only, but there are thousands of women who are willing to take these high-risk assignments.