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Women’s Non-existent Role In Combat Up Until 2013
Women have been involved in the military since 1775. But their roles were more involved in the fields of nursing, laundering and mending clothing, and cooking for the troops. In 1917 when Loretta Walsh became the first women to enlist. But it was not until 1948 that a law was finally passed that permanently made women a permanent part of the military services. In 1976, the first group of women is admitted into a U.S military academy. According to statistics only 15.6 percent of its 1.1 million soldiers are female. Women serve in 95 percent of all army occupations, which makes up 15.6 percent of active army. In a one-year span, Some 40,000 American military women are deployed during the Gulf War operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. But not a single woman was able to take on any form of combat. In 1994 a policy prohibits women from being assigned to ground combat units below the brigade level. A study conducted by (Matthews et al. 2009) to examine the attitudes of West Point cadets, Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadets, and non-military-affiliated students from civilian colleges toward a variety of roles that women may serve in the military. The results showed that military cadets were less approving of women being assigned to certain military jobs than non-military students.

New Combat Opportunities For Women
New opportunities are starting to open up for female soldiers. Almost twenty years later, in 2013, an order was passed that allowed women the same opportunities as men in the combat zone. Female U.S Army soldiers are being asked to partake in a new training course. The training course was designed by Combined Joint Task Force Paladin specifically for Female Engagement Team members. The training will help female soldiers in training such as training in unexploded ordnance awareness, biometrics, forensics, evidence collection, tactical questioning, vehicle and personnel searches, instructions on how homemade explosive devices are made and how to recognize if a device is homemade. It is rumored that women may begin Army Ranger training by mid-2015. This change will open up hundreds of thousands front-line positions for women, some positions possibly even leading to elite commando jobs for women. This will end the policy of “no women in units that are tasked with direct combat”. Jobs opportunities will not be available all at once, but with each branch examining the new lift on the ban, jobs will be available as they see fit. The goal is 2016 for all assessments to be complete and have women fully integrated into all roles in the army. In light of recent job opportunities opening up to females, a new movement has been created. The women of the army call it “Sisters in Arms”. This group was developed in hopes of helping the many female soldiers find their individual voice in the army. The program has spread throughout the Army worldwide.