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A One Percent to Honor

July 11, 2016

In December 2015, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter announced that women would no longer be barred from combat jobs in the U.S. armed forces. The welcome change opened 220,000 new infantry, armor, reconnaissance and special operations jobs to women, improving their opportunities for military pay increases and career advancement.

The policy reversal acknowledged and ratified the reality of war that many women over the past 14 years have experienced when they deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan – they have been on the front lines. It also reflects changing American demographics and the complex nature of conflict in the world today. Many people believe that opening up the military to women is a social experiment driven by a liberal or feminist agenda. In fact, the military needs women. It could not fill its recruitment quotas without them and it needs the diversity they bring to the armed forces to cope with a changing world…

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