War Forces Another Look at Role of Women

Army Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa, killed in action in Iraq, left behind two preschool kids. Spc. Shoshana Johnson, who was taken prisoner, is a single mother with a 2-year-old daughter.

As the war winds down, conservatives influential with the Bush administration are calling for another look at the role of women in the military, and particularly at policies that put mothers of young children in danger of being killed, wounded or captured.

“The placing of mothers of young children in or near combat violates the most fundamental rules of civilized behavior,” said Allan Carlson, a policy expert with the Family Research Council, a conservative advocacy group. “We should give them the chance to opt out of a call-up.”

Carlson and other critics say they are waiting for the war to end before they make their case to the administration. “There’s a plan to raise the issue and be ready for a debate,” he said. “I think we’ll be listened to.”

They are likely to run into opposition not only from feminists and liberals but also from many in the Pentagon who consider the once-acrimonious debate over the role of women in the military successfully settled.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” said retired Army Col. Bill Taylor, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “What about the males who get blown away? Which is worse, to lose the father of a child or the mother of a child?”

The war in Iraq represents the broadest participation by women in any U.S. conflict, and they have served with distinction.

“This is the most successful military in the world, and part of its success is that we utilize the talents of women,” said Carolyn Becraft, a former assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower and reserve affairs. “Nobody can argue with that. It’s kind of like the proof is in the pudding.”

Women also have shared in the tragedy of war. Piestewa, 22, and Johnson, 30, as well as rescued POW Jessica Lynch, were members of the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company who were ambushed March 23 near the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. They were supposed to provide support services for the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division.

Images of Johnson in captivity have been broadcast on Iraqi television. Lynch, 19, who was rescued April 1, arrived back in the U.S. on Saturday after being treated at a U.S. military hospital in Germany. She will continue her recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Units like the 507th had female members during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. But since then, policy changes by the Clinton administration and Congress opened thousands of high-risk military jobs to women, including as fighter pilots and on combat ships. By and large, the only jobs that remain closed are those that involve ground combat, such as in infantry, armor and field artillery.

The performance of women in Iraq justifies the lifting of those remaining restrictions, some advocates say.

“Women should be allowed in any position,” said Kathy Rodgers, president of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund. “In modern warfare, the distinction between combat and noncombat roles is nonexistent. Women have proven themselves fully capable of mastering the challenges and rigors of military service.”

But Americans have long been torn over the issue of women on the battlefront -- between a belief in equal opportunity and a desire to protect mothers of young children.

“This is a really interesting area, and I’m not sure where the public will go,” said Karlyn Bowman, a polling expert at the American Enterprise Institute think tank. “If you stress opportunity, a majority of men and women want women to have opportunities to serve. If the question is, ‘Should we be sending women who have young children into combat?’ I think it will be a different matter.”

The most extensive national polling on the issue dates to 1992, when a presidential commission conducted a survey. The Roper Organization asked Americans how they felt about parents of young children being involved in “direct combat.” It found that many were reluctant to send fathers into battle, much less mothers.

A slim majority -- 51% -- said married fathers of youngsters should serve in combat, while 43% said they should not. When it came to single fathers of young children, 48% said they should not be sent into battle, while 45% said it was acceptable.

As for mothers, solid majorities opposed their being in combat situations. Sixty-five percent said married women with young children should not go to the battlefront, while 69% opposed the exposure of single mothers to the risk of being killed, wounded or captured.

“Our national conscience finds it particularly disturbing when women fall into enemy hands,” said Rep. John M. McHugh (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House panel that deals with military personnel issues.

McHugh said he expects the Defense Department to conduct a review of the role played by women in Iraq, but he doesn’t see Congress rushing to reopen the debate over their status.

“There are some current realities that are unlikely to be changed by any vote in the House and Senate. Women are not just part of the military today, they are an irreplaceable part,” he said.

Women make up about 15% of the armed forces, ranging from a high of 19% in the Air Force to a low of 6% in the Marines. Gender integration and the rising average age of service members have forced the military to become increasingly involved in family issues. Single parents who are deployed are required to have “care plans” for their children, as are families in which both parents are in the military. The services strive to avoid putting both parents in jeopardy.

The last major Pentagon policy shift in the 1990s created many more opportunities -- and risks -- for military women. But in terms of public attention, the shift was overshadowed by the debate over gays in the service.

Women were allowed to serve in combat aircraft crews and on warships in 1993, after Congress repealed legal barriers. The following year, then-Defense Secretary Les Aspin repealed the so-called risk rule that barred women from certain units based on the chances of exposure to hostile fire or capture. The military adopted narrower restrictions barring women specifically from ground combat units.

Some conservatives are pressing the Bush administration to reconsider Aspin’s repeal of the risk rule.

Defenders of the current policy say military women are fully aware of the risks of the service for which they volunteered. A return to more restrictive assignments would make it harder for women to advance to senior ranks, they say, and exempting women from a call-up would be unfair to men.

“Women understand that if you are a soldier, you are a soldier,” said Fred Pang, a former assistant Defense secretary for personnel. “I don’t think [curtailing the role of women] is going to have a lot of traction with the people in uniform and the civilian leadership in the administration. The military doesn’t want to get into a situation where you’re protecting one group of soldiers more than another. That’s going to affect unit cohesion and morale.”

But others say the risks of military service for parents of young children are a valid social concern.

Michele Flournoy, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said many questions of fairness and individual choice would have to be tackled to create an exemption: Would it apply to fathers as well? At what age would a child be considered mature enough for the military to deploy his or her mother to a war zone? Would an exemption be mandatory or a matter of the service member’s choice?

“This has been looked at before,” Flournoy said. “But it’s one of those things that we as a society tend to want to reexamine again, to make sure we’ve got it right.”