Rajagopalan: Let women be combat warriors

Kavitha Rajagopalan is a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute.

On paper and in celluloid, we love the warrior woman. She's the Amazon, the goddess of war, rebel queen leading a guerrilla army. Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xena the Warrior Princess, Lara Croft the Tomb Raider, Ripley from the Alien movies or any of the new female characters kicking butts and taking names on TV.

So why wouldn't we trust her to defend our actual country?

This week, Australia announced that it would remove all gender barriers to military roles. That makes it one of just three countries in the world, along with Canada and New Zealand, that doesn't restrict the roles a woman can fill in the military.

Women make up about 14 percent of the U.S. armed forces. Since the 1991 Gulf War, women have played an increasingly active role in war zones, including flying in combat aircraft, and they've engaged in ground combat in the ongoing Iraq and Afghanistan wars. But they've only done ground combat in supporting roles, such as medics or logistics officers. Current defense policy still bans women from serving in direct, front-line combat units.

We have an all-volunteer military and are fighting two overseas wars. Amid a recruiting crisis a few years ago, all four branches of the armed services undertook massive merchandising and marketing efforts. While we have recently begun meeting recruitment goals again, the nonpartisan think tank Education Trust found recently that 23 percent of American high schoolers can't pass the military's academic entrance exam. Many more are barred from recruitment because of obesity or criminal records.

Eliminating barriers to women's combat service could help the military tap into a larger pool of female applicants.

Earlier this year, the Military Leadership Diversity Commission, an advisory body established by Congress two years ago, recommended that the policy banning women from full combat participation be lifted. The report says the ban keeps women from 10 percent of Marine Corps and Army specialties, and it acts as a barrier to promotion. The group's report should be taken seriously as the basis for policy change.

Some of those who oppose opening combat units to women suggest that women don't have the strength and stamina of men. But men in the military aren't as strong as they used to be, either. Starting in 2006, following a shortfall of new recruits, the military began relaxing its academic and physical testing standards and began granting waivers to accept applicants who would have previously been inadmissible for medical conditions (as well as misdemeanor arrests and substance abuse).

A more serious argument for keeping women out of combat units is that women continue to face an unconscionable degree of discrimination and sexual violence from their brothers in arms. In 2008, the Department of Defense documented more than 2,900 reported cases of rape, up 8 percent from the previous year, with a 26 percent increase in reported rapes among troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon has suggested that some 80 percent of rape and sexual assault cases go unreported.

Until the military can adjust its internal culture to better prevent and properly prosecute incidents of discrimination and sexual violence against women, the active duty combat side of military service will remain an even more dangerous place for women than men. But we should disabuse ourselves of the notion that this is because women can't hack it in combat. And we should no longer tolerate a military that perpetuates discriminatory attitudes and a retrograde culture toward women warriors. The military will cease to be no place for women if we stop treating it like such a boys' club.