Are women already on the front line?

While some debate whether women should collapse set upon roles on the appear soak up, others argue they are already there. 

Lance Corporal Abbie Martin recently win the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service aft(prenominal) she administered first aid to her colleagues whilst under fire during her first patrol.

And SAS pass Andy McNab recalls an incident where a female medic killed two Taliforbidding soldiers when her patrol came under attack.

However, whether women soldiers should be on the front line is a debate that has raged for some time. It re-ignited in January, when the US lifted its ban on female soldiers having combat roles, as WVoN reported.

But as an change magnitude number of women soldiers win awards for courage on the field, is it time to clear that the debate has shifted: although women in the British army are technically not go forthed in combat roles, they have nevertheless shew themselves in combat situations.

In addition, the front line has become an progressively nebulous concept over the past decade with the ingathering of counter-insurgency warfare rendering it ‘irrelevant’.

For military historian Sir hew out Strachan, the very idea that there is a front line and a ‘rear’ where you can separate men and women is no longer applicable to the recent wars.

The number of women soldiers injured or killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan testifies to this shift. More than 130 US women soldiers have been killed in the two wars and much than 800 injured.

Perhaps former soldier Congresswoman tammy Duckworth encapsulated this best, when, asked about women on the front line, she quipped,“Well I didn’t lose my legs in a bar fight, pal!”

In the bet of all of this, officially allowing women a combat role may represent not so much a disagreement from existing practices but rather a light of instantly’s reality.  Couching the debate in these terms – as recognition rather than de instigateure – may make their contribution more visible.

As a reader of the New York Times pointed out, lifting the ban on women in combat not only allows them to be recognize for their contributions but, “will also allow them to receive the proper schooling for the types of combat situations they already “unofficially” find themselves a part of.”

Globally, attitudes towards women on the front line appear to be changing. opposite countries, including Israel, Italy,  Norway and New Zealand have recognised this shift and officially allow women a combat role.

Polls conducted in the US by upper-case letter Post-ABC News, showed that a large majority of Americans accept women in combat roles. Within the UK, much of the press is  either supportive of women on the front line, or at least propose true for and against arguments, whereas some years ago outright opposition would have been a likelier outcome.

The UK  - as it is obliged to do every cardinal years – last reconsidered the combat role for women in 2010.

Let us hope that in 2018 the MOD will decide to unwrap women soldiers equality of opportunity and recognise the work that many of them already engage in.

 

Materials taken from Womens Views on News