The Army should assign roles based on merit, not gender

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/21/army-women-merit-not-gender

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During my deployment to Iraq in 2007, the IED that hit my vehicle did not discriminate between male and female soldiers. During my deployment to Afghanistan in 2004, I accompanied combat arms soldiers on “door-kicking” missions, searching the women in remote villages. I carried out this unofficial duty in addition to my official combat support job – women in the US military were officially barred from serving in combat units until 2013.

For the 13 years that I have served in the United States Army Reserve, I’ve always known that women have what it takes to lead and execute in modern warfare, which is why it came as no surprise that two women will be the first female graduates of Ranger School. For me, this was always a question of when — never if.

As a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Department of Defense’s combat exclusion policy in 2012, I pointed out that the inability to enroll in elite schools such as Ranger School simply due to gender constituted structural discrimination. This automatic rejection puts female soldiers and officers at a disadvantage for future assignment choices and career advancement.

A few months after the suit was brought, former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced that he was officially rescinding the 1994 directive that prohibited women from being assigned to ground combat units and positions. And although there’s still a ways to go to achieve full combat integration, opening the Ranger course to women on a trial basis allowed for the historic graduation of two highly qualified women soldiers to take place Friday. This is a great start, but the Army must open all positions to qualified women.

Putting men and women on equal footing would expand the potential pool of recruits. Currently, two thirds of America’s youth would not qualify for military service, be it due to criminal records, not having a high school diploma or physical conditions such as obesity. Of the one third left, only about 1% of those young adults would be inclined to have a conversation with a recruiter. As fewer people are able to meet the military standard to join and are less inclined to actually join if they do, the Army must focus on attracting top talent, irrespective of gender.

Once the Army attracts that talent, they must work to keep it. By maintaining discriminatory policies that still exclude women from the vast majority of combat positions, women are shown that the Army is not the place for them if they want to have a career. They receive the unspoken message that no matter how hard they work, or how good they are, at the end of the day it’s their gender and not their ability that the Army cares about. It tells the male soldiers that women can only be counted on to do the support jobs and only trusted to an extent. Even with over a decade of experience, including two deployments, I have often felt that I still needed to prove that I belong in uniform.

As the first two women to ever earn Ranger tabs prepare for their graduation this week, I applaud not only them, but the Army for waking up to the reality that it is time to do away with needless archaic rules. Their graduation has already seemingly influenced other service branches. This week the Navy announced that they would likely open up the Seals to women who pass the rigorous Basic Underwater Demolition Course. The Navy actually goes one step farther than the Army, which has not announced whether the 75th Ranger Regiment and other elite units will be open to women.

In today’s ever-changing and complex battlefield, the Army needs to stress talent and ability to complete the mission over gender. I hope that the female graduates’ leadership will show the Army that grit and ability know no gender and show the next generation of soldiers, both male and female, that their abilities will be fully recognized based on their merit alone.