Army Women's Roles

Women are a constant in the United States Armed forces, they are mothers, daughters, aunts and sister and then they are soldiers. “More than 200,000 women are in the active-duty military, including 69 generals and admirals. That number comprises about 74,000 in the Army, 53,000 in the Navy, 62,000 in the Air Force and 14,000 in the Marine Corps (Smith 2013).” Women have been apart of the United States military for many decades. Women started off as nurses in 1775 and that continued until roughly 1948. Then in 1950 servicewoman that were on the reserves list were called to active duty during the Korean war. In 1968 the first woman was sworn into the Air National Guard following this in 1969 the Air force reserves officers training program opened to women. In 1972 the Reserve Officer Training Corps opened to women trailing this in 1976 woman were admitted to service academies. In 1978 Coast Guard opened to women and then in 1982 the Air force followed suit. Finally in 1993 we first saw a major step for women in the armed forces, Congress repealed the law banning women from duty on combat ships. Women deployed
Women will have to be placed in combat positions due to the changes occurring. Unfortunately, the combat-exclusion policy, which has been set by the Pentagon since 1994 states “that woman in the Army and Marine Corps cannot formally be assigned to ground combat units, instead they are deployed in combat zones attached to combat units through technically in support role (Miller & Rosenthal 2012).” This policy prevents women from receiving recognition for their service in combat. Due to the fact that women cannot receive credit for their accomplishments this has a direct correlation to service, which is a crucial role that leads to promotions into senior ranks of the military. Therefor women cannot advance in their career because of the combat-exclusion