Petenei Tacu
Mr. Lyon
ENG 111-13
27 September 2018
Factors Influencing the Lifting of the Combat Exclusion Policy 2013
Women have long struggled to come in equal and be considered as good as men. The lifting of the combat exclusion policy in the U.S. military is one significant change in the position of women involved in the wars. Many women who proved themselves capable in combat, positive results of the experiments from the Army and Marines, the ACLU lawsuit against the Department of defense all led to considering the 2013 Lifting of the Combat Exclusion Policy.
Women have proved themselves to be an important unit in the making of a great and versatile army force that can tackle almost any situation. Stacy Pearsall was an American photographer who began her career as a photographer at the young age of 17 in the U.S. Air Force and entered combat in Iraq in 2003. Her works were used for official purposes and also helped in creating a solid sense of pictorial imagery of wars to be able to perceive and understand the battlefield in a more realistic sense. Lt. Col. Kellie McCoy was another notable woman who served as a battalion executive officer. Sisk in one of his articles reports about her as, “A West Point graduate who completed airborne school as a cadet, McCoy led 11 male paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division into combat in Iraq in 2003.” Individuals like staff sergeant Stacy Pearsall and Lt. Col. Kellie McCoy who made great success and played inspirational roles as women in the wars also influenced and convinced the lifting of the ban for women in combat.
Groups of women coming together like the Cultural Support Teams and the Team Lioness are also fitting examples of the significance of the role of women in wars. These groups were solely comprised of only female soldiers. According to Afghan War News, “The primary task of the Cultural Support Teams or CSTs was to engage the female population of Afghanistan. Contact with Afghan women is culturally inappropriate for male members of the military. This cultural limitation hinders operations such as civic-action, raids, information gathering, and other types of missions. The CSTs overcame this limitation and allowed coalition force contact with Afghan women – who comprise about 50% of the population of Afghanistan.” Team Lioness was also another group comprising of women soldiers and much like the Cultural Support Teams, they also supported the army forces. Both these two teams’ primary role and focus was to gain access to women of the nations they were in conflict with. For instance, Iraq and Afghanistan – where in their culture men searching and touching women was considered dishonorable. They functioned more as a soft power than a forceful one which helped in upholding the moral values and culture of the other nations.
The U.S. Marine Corps and the Army also conducted experiments before the lifting of the ban to test and see if women were eligible to be included and involved in combats. Although in the Infantry Officer Course, considered and called the corps most grueling school by its instructors- intended to screen and train potential infantry officers, the result for success was 0 out of 29, the Army Ranger School had positive results. The Army Ranger School conducted tests in four phases, the first two at Fort Benning, next in the north Georgia mountains and finally in the Florida panhandle swamps (Williams). Two women – Captain Kristen Griest and 1st Lieutenant Shaye Haver, out of the nineteen were able to graduate from the school and make history as the first women graduates from the school. They made the position of women in combat even more plausible.
Lastly, an ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) lawsuit was filed against the U.S. Defense Department in 2012 by four servicewomen- 1st Lt. Colleen Farrell, Marine Reserves Capt. Zoe Bedell, Army Staff Sgt. Jennifer Hunt and Air Guard Major Mary Jennings, who had all served in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to a news article by CNN Wire Staff, the lawsuit was based on claims that women were not given equal recognition as men even though they had to go through situations and do work the same as men for which they were being recognized and awarded and also for lack of promotions of women. The military also did not previously allow women to serve in ground combat units, such as infantry, artillery, armor or as special operations commandos but wars without clear front lines frequently pushed women assigned to support roles directly into the fighting. "Their careers and opportunities have been limited by a policy that does not grant them the same recognition for their service as their male counterparts," the ACLU said. "The combat exclusion policy also makes it harder for them to do their jobs." The ACLU lawsuit further helped in bringing light to the inferiority women were facing in the military.
The events and reasons mentioned above were some of the most significantly influencing factors that led and convinced Panetta and other officials to lift the ban. The roles played by women in the wars from history to present times, the promising results from the tests and experiments conducted, and how women were so determined to be given an equal place as men in the military all proved that it was worth giving them a chance to serve in the military with more privilege, honor, and recognition. On January 2013, shortly before resigning from the Defense Secretary post, Panetta announced that women would be allowed to enter all combat jobs in the military.
Works Cited
“4 Female War Veterans Sue U.S. Military over Policy against Women in Combat.” CNN, Cable News Network, 28 November 2012.
“Afghan War News.” Cultural Support Team (CST) in Afghanistan.
Sisk, Richard. “Female Soldier Recounts Time Under Fire.” Military.com, 28 January 2013.
Williams, Chuck. “2 Female Infantry Officers Set to Graduate Ranger School.” Task & Purpose, Task & Purpose, 30 Mar. 2017.