The ground combat exclusion policy implemented by the Department of Defense in 1994 was meant to protect women especially those who are pregnant from the trauma that comes from direct combat which includes death, exposure to heavy artillery and exposure to chemical or biological warfare (McSally, 2007). The policy has since ended up working against women because it shuts them out of competitive leadership roles. This policy is oppressive to women because it excludes them from serving in over 200,000 military positions which fall below the brigade level. The brigade levels allow for combat on the ground, which is a requirement in many recruitments and promotions in the military. Women just like the men should be allowed to join the combat as long as they can meet the same standards as the men do.
Women who serve at the ground level in noncombat roles are vulnerable to getting injuries from roadside IEDs (improvised explosive devices) or even being captured and tortured. Nevertheless, little concern has been given to protecting those performing non-combat roles. It is the military should work on enhancing more defense mechanisms for those performing non-combat roles while in the field of war. The mechanism can involve deploying personal security teams to watch over those performing non-combat roles.
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Women have gained interest in serving in the combat role. It was not until the capture of Private First Class Jessica Lynch on March 23, 2003, from an Iraqi hospital that the local and international media sparked a new debate on the exclusion of women from combat roles (Holland, 2006). For instance, during the Vietnam War, only one woman deployed to work as a nurse in the military was killed as a result of a rocket attack by the enemy. During that time women only served in traditional roles such as being spies, working as nurses or even cooks in the military and were not allowed to work overseas or even train to carry weapons even while serving in regions filled with artillery bombardments. All they were allowed to carry was a purse with no protective gear such as helmets or flap jackets. This lack of training exposed these women to being injured, killed or even captured by the enemy because they were not trained on how to protect themselves.
America has since responded to the number of civilians serving in the military by developing an all-volunteer Army. The all-volunteer program has allowed for longer terms of service, better training and has increased number of women deployed to serve in more combative roles in the military such as flying the Apache helicopters and fighting using machinery. But despite all these advancements women still experience gender biased training.
A case in point being, McSally (2007, p.1013) who rose up the military ranks to become the first woman in history to be allowed to lead A-10 fighter squad that went into combat in Afghanistan in the year 2005. As a T-37 Instructor Pilot, She witnessed several women who ranked top of their classes being disqualified from flying special-operations helicopters on the basis of their gender. One woman called Deborah Sampson had to disguise herself as a man to serve in the military for three years fighting in numerous battles before she was discovered and discharged from the force (McSally, 2007, p.1020). This shows that even the best of women who qualify to serve in the military are still stereotyped as weak to serve in some combative posts based only on their gender despite their qualifications, physical strength or even stamina.
References
Holland, S. L. (2006). The dangers of playing dress-up: Popular representations of Jessica Lynch and the controversy regarding women in combat. Quarterly Journal of Speech , 92 (1), 27-50.
McSally, M. (2007). Women in combat: Is the current policy obsolete. Duke J. Gender L. & Pol'y , 14 , 1011.
