Military to Open 260,000 New Jobs to Women
About 260,000 new jobs in the military will be opened to women in the coming years, but the ban against entering ground combat will probably keep them from top promotions, a Pentagon officer said Friday.
“To be quite honest . . . because of the prohibition against ground combat, it is not likely that in the next 25 or 30 years there will be a female chief of staff of the Army,” said Edwin Dorn, the Defense Department’s assistant secretary for personnel.
But a woman might be able to compete, that in itself a first, for top jobs in the Air Force and Navy because of changes made in the last 18 months, Dorn added.
Those services have opened slots on combat ships and in combat aircraft, where most of the chances for promotion and high-level awards and recognition will occur.
Women in the Army and Marine Corps will be allowed to fly on combat helicopters, but will continue to be barred from those services’ primary missions--ground combat in infantry, armor and artillery units.
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