In response to changes in U.S. social values and political, economic, and military pressures, combat exclusion restrictions on servicewomen have been steadily eroding in recent years. Moreover, the erosion has been particularly swift since 1970. Each of the U.S. armed services now excludes female members from active face-to-face combat. The nature and extent of the exclusion varies with each service. For the navy, marine corps, and air force, the exclusion is mandated by law. The law does not prohibit the army from employing women in combat. The army, however, has repeatedly assured Congress that it would not send its female soldiers into the trenches.
Why women were being excluded from combat has rarely been stated. Until recently, warfare was so clearly recognized as "men's work" that few people really thought to ask. When women began to enter the military, it became necessary to deal with the what, why, and how of excluding women. The services have difficulty in defining what combat actually is in order to exclude women from it. In earlier centuries when weaponry was simple and its reach measured in tens or hundreds of yards, combat definitions were much easier. Before this century, the large majority of soldiers in the field and sailors at sea were combatants in the pure sense of the word. In battle they fought closely with their adversaries and attempted to kill or capture them. Consequently, all soldiers and sailors were generally considered combatants. Thus, we can derive the first of three components of combat that have traditionally governed the exclusion of women that of function. A combatant is one whose duty involves direct action designed to kill or capture members of an opposing enemy force. Because almost all members of field forces had primary or secondary combatant functions, a female combat exclusion policy could and did equate with a military exclusion policy. (Martin Binkin and Shirley J. Bach, 1977, p. 7)...............
