US women in combat: Will equality affect national security?
After the ban on women in combat was lifted in 2013 (initially subject to exceptions), debate raged about whether the death of female troops in battle, particularly in large numbers, would cause Americans to turn against their country鈥檚 wars in a way that men鈥檚 deaths don鈥檛 鈥� and, in the process, imperil U.S. national security.
Opening combat jobs 鈥撎齱ithout exception 鈥撎齮o women in 2015 did little to quell the debate.
Two years later, the impact of women dying in combat was still a point of discussion, including in classrooms at Harvard University, where former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter had just returned to teach. 鈥淭here were people wildly speculating about the consequences of this [women in combat] change,鈥� says Connor Huff, a teaching assistant there at the time, 鈥渁nd doing this with no evidence.鈥澨�
Why We Wrote This
Sometimes the anticipated consequences of policy changes don鈥檛 materialize. A case in point: Lifting the ban on U.S. servicewomen fighting 鈥� and dying 鈥� in combat hasn鈥檛 dampened Americans鈥� support for war.
He mentioned this to Dara Kay Cohen, associate professor of public policy at the Kennedy School. 鈥淐onnor said, 鈥業nstead of just talking about it, let鈥檚 collect some data,鈥欌�� she recalls.
Last month they published the study, and the results were clear: Women dying in combat did not diminish support for America鈥檚 wars.听
Early on in the project, their findings were so unequivocal that they decided to ask more questions.听What would happen, for example, if women were dying in greater numbers? But whether the hypothetical combat fatality was a man (Todd Ryan) or a woman (Molly Ryan) 鈥� and whether one woman died or a dozen 鈥� support for the war remained the same.听
The study should 鈥減ut to bed the argument that women serving and sacrificing in these roles will be harmful to leaders鈥� ability to wage war,鈥� Dr. Cohen says.
It seems like a point that should have been shelved long ago, particularly given that听 for their country since 2001 without the wars grinding to a halt, notes retired Col. Ellen Haring, a 1984 West Point graduate who, in 2012, sued the Department of Defense for its combat exclusion policy. Still, she adds, 鈥淚 wish this study would have come out five or 10 years ago.鈥�听
Combat sacrifice but not 鈥渇irst-class citizenship鈥�
In addition to the argument that women should be protected from fighting wars due to their inherent weakness, in the early days of women in combat,听the study notes,听there was concern among advocates that detractors could interpret the death of female soldiers as confirmation of their unfitness for the front lines, their dying as evidence of poor performance in battle.
That argument never gained much traction, but American women in combat remained a touchy subject. In 2018, for example, then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis told an audience at Virginia Military Institute that infantry troops are 鈥渘ecessarily macho鈥� since war is 鈥渢he most primitive 鈥� I would say even evil 鈥� environment.鈥� In that context, he added that the 鈥溾�� on whether women can make the U.S. military more combat-effective.
This was three years after the Pentagon opened all combat jobs to women 鈥� including the infantry and special operations forces 鈥� and three years after the first women graduated from the Army鈥檚 grueling Ranger School. Today, some 50 women have earned their Ranger tabs, and there are nearly 1,000 women serving as infantry soldiers, tankers, and cavalry scouts, front-line jobs previously closed to them.
As women have moved into these jobs, the hope among advocates has been that respect for them might grow in the eyes of their fellow countrymen, creating a path to, as the study puts it, 鈥渇irst-class citizenship.鈥� Dr. Cohen and Dr. Huff, now an assistant professor of political science at Rice University in Texas, along with their co-author Robert Schub of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, looked into this, too, collecting data on whether, according to the study, women 鈥渇ighting on the frontlines and making heroic sacrifices in combat鈥� might have 鈥渂road implications for women鈥檚 equality.鈥�
It doesn鈥檛 appear to, at least among men. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 find evidence of a massive shift in thinking about what women are capable of doing, even after serving and sacrificing in these heroic ways,鈥� Dr. Cohen says. 鈥淥n a personal level, that was a depressing finding for us.鈥�
As the study puts it, 鈥淐ombat service 鈥� and indeed, combat sacrifice 鈥� alone appears to be insufficient to yield women 鈥榝irst-class citizenship鈥� among the U.S. public that the most ardent supporters hope to achieve.鈥�
Military women serving in these roles often take pains to emphasize that they are not doing it to garner special kudos, or even to make a statement 鈥� other than that they want to fight in the same way their male counterparts do. Still, the finding is 鈥渧ery disappointing,鈥� Colonel Haring says.听
Women soldiers as role models for women
Among women, however, the study鈥檚 findings were different. Hearing about women serving and dying in combat did seem to boost support for women鈥檚 equality among other women. This included, for example, creating more positive views of women鈥檚 fitness for leadership.
There appears to be a 鈥渒ind [of] aspirational effect on women,鈥� Dr. Cohen says, noting that a number of studies have shown that if there鈥檚 a female instructor for an introductory economics class, for example, more women tend to declare an economics major, 鈥渂ut it doesn鈥檛 have that effect on men,鈥� she adds. 鈥淪eeing someone like you do something inspiring or heroic has an effect on similar people.鈥澨�
This may have had something to do with the fact that women who served in the military ran for elective office in larger numbers than ever before in both the 2018 and 2020 elections, the study argues: 鈥淗aving status as a veteran increased public perceptions of the legitimacy and authority of female candidates.鈥�
And though women in combat may not have an immediate impact on how men view women鈥檚 equality, it may over time, Colonel Haring says. 鈥淟ook, 100 years ago, it would have been inconceivable for a woman to command a Navy ship. Now it鈥檚 not even blinked at,鈥� she adds. 鈥淚 also know we have a lot more male champions today than when we came into the Army 鈥� it can just take time.鈥澨�
