The role of female soldiers in the U.S. military is expanding. Women now make up 15 percent of the active duty force and serve in increasingly varied capacities, from intelligence to military police. Are we making progress toward equality or just bringing the battle of the sexes onto the battlefield? Many soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan feel that the Pentagon policy prohibiting women from serving in ground combat is outdated. Or simply irrelevant: In wars with no clear frontlines, women serving support operations often face the same risks as the vanguard. PT put the question to experts in each camp.
Should women be allowed in battle?
NO: Integration of combat forces would inevitably lead to a less effective military. Women are weaker, more prone to injury, less aggressive, less tolerant of pain, less willing to take risks, and less motivated to kill. Even if it were feasible to identify the few women possessing the requisite qualities, men do not trust women with their lives or bond with them the way they do with other men. Men, traditionally drawn to the military because of its appeal to their masculinity, find that the military is trying to cure them of it to make women more comfortable. "Equal opportunity" for female soldiers cannot justify damage to the military's core function. —Kingsley Browne is a law professor at Wayne State University and author of Co-Ed Combat.
