Australia Says It Will Open Combat Roles to Women

[darrels joy]

Australia Says It Will Open Combat Roles to Women
By MATT SIEGEL

Published: September 27, 2011




SYDNEY, Australia — Australia’s female soldiers will soon be able to serve in all front-line combat roles, the government announced on Tuesday.


The move will make Australia one of a handful of countries that allow women to serve alongside their male counterparts in some of the most dangerous roles in modern warfare, including Special Forces units in Afghanistan.



The announcement by Defense Minister Stephen Smith that the last positions that had remained closed to women — including the Special Forces, infantry and some army artillery roles — would be opened is the biggest shakeup of the country’s armed forces in more than a decade.

Mr. Smith proposed dropping the restrictions in April amid the fallout from a series of military scandals at home and abroad. In the most notorious case, a male cadet at the elite Australian Defense Force Academy was caught streaming video of himself having sex with a female cadet to his friends via Skype without her knowledge.

The move is supported by Prime Minster Julia Gillard, the country’s first female leader.

“We have an Australian Army that’s been going for 110 years, an Australian Navy that’s been going formally for 100 years, and an Australian Air Force that’s been going for 90 years, and last night, we resolved to remove the final restrictions on the capacity of women to serve in front-line combat roles,” Mr. Smith said in the capital, Canberra. “In the future, your role in the defense force will be determined on your ability, not on the basis of your sex.”

Women already play a significant role in the Australian military, which sent more than 2,000 troops to fight in Iraq and currently makes up the largest contingent of any non-NATO member fighting in Afghanistan. As of August, 335 women were serving on overseas operations, accounting for more than 10 percent of Australia’s fighting forces deployed overseas, according to the military.

But while the military says that about 93 percent of positions are open to women under the current policy, many combat roles have remained closed. Under the new plan, which Mr. Smith said had been agreed upon during a cabinet meeting on Monday and which will be carried out over a five-year period, those remaining restrictions will be dropped. Australia will now join Canada, Israel and New Zealand as the only developed countries with no restrictions on women serving in front-line capacities.

Women make up 14 percent of the United States’ armed forces, but they are barred from serving in certain combat roles, including in the infantry and Special Forces, a sore point for many female soldiers who are often attached to combat units in noncombat roles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/wo...mbat.html?_r=2