Introduction

The traditional policy of excluding women from direct-combat positions in the U.S. armed forces has been a target of criticism by those who believe that this policy is nothing but a form of discrimination against women. These dissenting voices have been calling for the elimination of these last barriers and the opening to women of all positions within the military organization.

A brief - and certainly incomplete - narrative of policy-making evolution in this area should start in the early twentieth century, when women were used mainly as nurses in the armed forces. During World War II, owing to manpower needs to fight the Axis powers, it was decided that women would be employed more broadly in auxiliary roles. Later, women became actual members of the armed forces, but they were kept in separate corps. In 1948, the enactment of the Women's Armed Services Integration Act made the presence of women in the military permanent, even in peacetime, but it excluded them from direct-combat positions because such positions were seen as contrary to American culture and tradition. Women were significantly restricted in grade as well, because they could not go farther than the rank of colonel. When women were rotated out of a job, they reverted back to the highest permanent rank, lieutenant colonel or commander.

In 1967, Congress began loosening some of the restrictions on the positions that could be occupied by women. In 1972, women were allowed into Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) units. In 1976, there was a further significant development when Congress required the Department of Defense to open the military academies to women. In 1978, the Navy statute was amended to broaden the availability of shipboard assignments to Navy women to include hospital, supply, and transport ships. In 1980, the Defense Officers Personnel Management Act (DOPMA) opened still more positions to women and indicated that women would be in competition with men for all jobs in the armed forces. In 1991, the Air Force statute was repealed by the House of Representatives, and restrictions on the assignment of women to air crew positions in the Navy were eliminated. The constraints on the assignment of women to ground combat and to combatant ships was left in place.