User:DelaneyJanosek/sandbox

In 1994 the Department of Defense officially banned women from serving in combat.

Social concerns[edit]
The purported disruption of a combat unit's morale is cited as another reason for women to be banned from front-line combat situations.

There is a secondary concern that romantic relationships between men and women on the front lines could disrupt a unit's fighting capability and a fear that a high number of women would deliberately become pregnant in order to escape combat duties. To compare, the U.S. military is substantially staffed by young women. The volunteer military has turned out to be "family friendly". Marriage is frequent and fertility levels are increasing to this day in the military.

A third argument against the inclusion of women in combat units is that placing women in combat where they are at risk of being captured and tortured and possibly sexually assaulted is unacceptable. Rhonda Cornum, then a Major and flight surgeon, and now a Brigadier General and Command Surgeon for United States Army Forces Command, was an Iraqi prisoner of war in 1991. At the time, she was asked not to mention that she had been molested while in captivity.

Finally, there is the argument that by not incorporating women into combat, the American government is failing to tap into another source of soldiers for military combat operations. This argument claims that the government is creating a military that treats women as second-class citizens and not equals of men.