“30 seconds to drop zone.” 30,000 feet up. Everyone in the plane stands up. Special Operations soldiers prepare to jump into the middle of nowhere Afghanistan. Preparing to infiltrate a compound of al qaeda leaders. 17 men jump out of the plane. 0 women.
A humvee moves out from the green zone, carrying a squad of infantrymen into combat. Day 52 of their 18 month deployment to J-Bad. 16 men. 0 women.
A helicopter lifts of the ground from a forward operating base, just miles from the Pakistan border. A team of combat engineers are heading out to help a marine squadron set up explosives near a road where it is known al qaeda leaders travel. 6 men pile into the blackhawk. 0 women.
Anyone seeing a common link here? Where are the women?
“For the past decade women in the U.S. military have served, fought and died on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan.” (Lolita Baldor - Huffington Post) In 1901 women started to serve in the U.S. military. The only job they could have was as nurses. As the years progress more and more opportunities have become available to women in all
branches of the military. But there are still jobs that women are banned from. This needs to change.
Most of the jobs women can’t have are in the special forces, or frontlines of combat. In February of 2012 the Defence Department (DOD) changed its policies, the change resulted in allowing women to hold jobs closer to the front lines of combat. They are now allowed to hold jobs at the battalion level, which until early 2012 was considered too close to combat. But they’re still not on the very front lines. Although some women are serving in a lot more combat than their job description implies, in modern war it is very hard to keep every single women clear of combat. In a vast majority of cases women have proven they can deal with the combat situations, and protect and serve their country. The military leaders have been able to find loopholes in the policies and have been able to send women into combat without giving them the full credit for their actions.

Hundreds of women have already died in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. If their bravery is any indication of what women are ready to do for their country, why can’t they take that bravery to the front lines? And why isn’t the combat their seeing classified as the front lines? According to Major General Gary Patton, principal director for military personnel policy, women can now hold 14,000 new jobs this year, although there are still about 238,000 jobs women can’t have. Women currently serve as support troops alongside elite special forces units. They just can’t fight on the
The question still remains, why can't women hold these jobs?

"There are practical barriers, which if not approached in a deliberate manner, could adversely impact the health of our service members and degrade mission accomplishment." This is a quote from Eillen Lainez, a DOD spokeswoman.

Some people just aren’t comfortable with the raised possibility that women who would fight on the front lines would never come home. If the woman who is putting her life on the line and making the conscience choice to sign a contract that gives them a job on the front lines, than she has decided she can cope with the possibility of not coming home. It’s nobody's problem but hers.
Our society pressures men to protect women, even if they don’t want or need protecting. So when a male soldier sees his female counterpart being shot at he may leave the mission prerogative and move to protect the woman. Which could lead to one or both of them getting killed, and possible mission failure. Thats the guys fault isn’t it? In this hypothetical situation, the man was the one who potentially blew the mission. The woman wasn’t asking him to protect her. I think that if the men spent a little more time in training to get used to the women working alongside them, they wouldn’t even think about that much any more and treat the women with equal respect, not think that their inferior and need protecting.

“Women could interfere with how the team bonds.” When African-Americans and gay people were allowed to join the military the same argument was made. People eventually got over that, and now African-Americans and gays are - for the most part - accepted and the team bonding goes on as it always did. If other groups who were at first controversial are now accepted, won't women be accepted as well? There will still be the couple of guys who hate that women are on their teams, but nothing can be done about that. If women try joining front line units are special ops and don’t feel comfortable, there should be a provision in their contracts that say they can just go back to their old units. But the women who really want to be there will eventually learn to cope.

There is also the privacy issue. Anyone heard of doors? When their on a base, just close the door, it works on aircraft carriers, barracks, base housing and basically anywhere else female soldiers are. And when their in combat, personal dignity and privacy will be one of the last things their thinking about. I can’t say its a non-issue, but through trial and error the military will most likely figure it out. It would be just another thing females in combat will have to deal with. As I said before, the women who really want to be there will eventually learn to cope.
Women could also bring something new to the team. Women can do things men can’t. It’s just a fact. Some of the women connected to terrorism cells, as terrorists wives or children may be more likely to trust a women. When they’re homes are raided by American commandos on missions, a female face may help them to calm down, convince them to give Americans information. Also there are some situations in the middle-east when the men have a disadvantage. Sometimes soldiers will have to frisk a local women, in the middle-east a man doing this would be extraordinarily disrespectful, it would be less so if the soldier was a women. People don’t always see a women as a threat. Insurgents, terrorists, and many others won’t shoot a women, no matter what, but a female Navy SEAL wouldn’t have any problems shooting a man pointing an AK-47 at her. Doesn’t all the new things women could bring to the team outweigh the downsides of having women on the team?
We’ve come along way from the times when a women was expected to do whatever her husband wanted, but there are still bearers to overcome. Still hoops to jump through. Still challenges to face. There always will be. Women will overcome them, just as they have before.

"To continue such a ban is to ignore the talents and leadership that women bring to the military and it further penalizes servicewomen by denying them the opportunity for future promotions and assignments that are primarily given to personnel from combat arms specialties. It's time military leadership establish the same level playing field to qualified women to enter the infantry, Special Forces and other all-male units," - Anu Bhagwati, former Marine Corps captain.