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The Voter’s Speakeasy featuring unbiased reporting and insight into life at Vote Smart from our staff, interns, and volunteers.
Women Warriors
Even in the earliest years of the United States, women have been filling vital roles to support United States military operations. Women gave men some comforts of home, filling positions such as cooks, launderers, seamstresses, nurses, and, in some instances, spies in order to secure liberty for generations to come.
In today’s political climate, women are allowed to officially have combat roles in the US Military, but are not yet permitted to be selected for service via the draft. While some people view this as a necessary component of gender equality, others are hesitant to send their daughters and wives to war.
In December of 2015, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter ordered the Department of Defense to open all military positions to women starting in January of 2016. According to his press release:
"They'll be allowed to drive tanks, fire mortars and lead infantry soldiers into combat... They'll be able to serve as Army Rangers and Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Marine Corps infantry, Air Force parajumpers, and everything else that was previously open only to men."
It goes on to say:
“Though more than 111,000 positions had opened to women in uniform since 2013 until today's announcement, Carter said, about 10 percent of military positions -- nearly 220,000 -- had remained closed to women. These included infantry, armor, reconnaissance, and some special operations unit”
The above quote mentions a number of jobs have opened up for women in the military since 2013. This was authorized by former Secretary of ...