Women in combat

Women in combat are female military personnel assigned to combat positions. This article covers the situation in major countries, provides a historical perspective, and reviews the main arguments made for and against women in combat.

For most of human history, people serving in combat were overwhelmingly male. In a few cases however, individual women have been recorded as serving in combat roles disguised as men or in leadership roles as queens (such as Queen Boudica, who led the Britons against Rome; Joan of Arc is the famous example). In the First World War Russia after February Revolution used one all-female combat unit. In the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of British and German women served in combat roles in anti-aircraft units, where they shot down thousands of enemy aircraft. They were widely accepted because they were not at risk of capture. In the Soviet Union, there was large-scale use of women near the front as medical staff and political officers. The Soviets also set up all-female sniper units and combat fighter planes. A few women also played combat roles in resistance movements in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

In 2001, Germany opened all combat units to women. This greatly increased recruitment for female soldiers. Since 2001, the number of German Armed Forces has tripled. By 2009, 800 female soldiers were serving in combat units.

The Australian military began a five-year plan to open combat roles to women in 2011. Front line combat roles opened in January 2013. The positions women will now be able to fill are: Navy Ordnance disposal divers, airfield and ground defense guards, infantry, artillery and armored units.

In 1989, a tribunal appointed under the Canadian Human Rights Act ordered full integration of women in the Canadian Armed Forces "with all due speed," at least within the next ten years. Submarines remained closed to women until 2000.

India began recruiting women to non-medical positions in the armed forces in 1992, and in 2016 announced a decision to allow women to take up combat roles in all sections of its army, navy and air force.

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