Americans Overwhelmingly Support Women Serving in Military Combat

RedTracker| Members from all branches of Amrica’s military are in San Diego this week for the Joint Women’s Leadership Symposium. The Sea Service Leadership Association has sponsored the program for 24 years, providing professional development and encouragement to active-duty military women.

Lt. Cmdr. Jean Marie Sullivan, the chief of the Navy’s Office of Women’s Policy and one of the event organizers, told San Diego’s Union Tribune that “many young women question the feasibility of having a family and maintaining their military careers, but being able to talk to women who have gone through it can reassure them a balanced life is possible.”

Women have become crucial players in U.S. efforts in the Middle East by being able to speak to native women when cultural rules dictate male soldiers cannot, said convention panelist Jolynn Shoemaker, executive director of Women in International Security. Additionally, she said women can come off as less threatening to men in foreign countries and therefore receive a warmer welcome.

Americans Overwhelmingly Support Women in Combat

In a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 53 percent of respondents support giving women direct combat roles, and 25 percent oppose the move. Men and women support the move equally. By political affiliation 80 percent os self-described Democrats, 62 percent of Republicans and 73 percent of independents support women in combat.

Since 1994, the Pentagon has barred women from serving in direct ground combat and allows them to serve in units that can face combat-related action.

A congressionally-mandated commission recommended last week that the Pentagon end the current ban in order “to create a level playing field for all qualified service members.” The Military Leadership Diversity Commission, chartered by Congress as part of the annual defense authorization bill in 2009, issued 20 recommendations designed to prepare a higher percentage of women and minorities to serve in top military leadership positions.