Women in Combat

摘要

On 24 January US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey announced that 'we are eliminating the direct ground combat exclusion rule for women and we are moving forward with a plan to eliminate all unnecessary gender-based barriers to service'. This triggered media speculation that all barriers to women serving in the US military would quickly be lifted. But much of the reporting on the policy shift was over-simplistic. Panetta and Dempsey's announcement is more conditional and nuanced than is often described. And it allows the Pentagon to decide to continue to exclude women from some combat roles. There is a real possibility that this may happen - especially for US Army and Marine Corps infantry.