Women: The Combat Multiplier of Asymmetric Warfare

SGT Francis I. Fonseca, a combat medic with Charlie Company, 703d Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3d Infantry Division, fires an M4 carbine weapon, during an advanced marksmanship course at Fort Stewart, GA, 21 February 2012. (U.S. Army, SSG Tanya Thomas) A FIRST, THE obvious question concerning the role women will play in the U.S. Army in the next 20 years is, “When will we gender integrate the combat arms—Infantry, Armor and Field Artillery?” Surely all soldiers should have the widest possible opportunities to pursue the most demanding and critical jobs in the U.S. Army. These jobs exist to manage and apply violence upon the nation’s enemies, “to kill people and break things,” as an infantryman might put it. Haven’t nearly 40 years of experience, and particularly the last decade of enduring combat operations, validated the fact that women have served successfully in every branch and military occupational specialty (MOS) open to them? Considering the problem of gender integration from this perspective, one sees there is no substantive difference in performing required tasks to their standards between equally trained and duty-qualified male and female soldiers. If the vast majority of MOSs are equivalent, why should the combat arms be different? But what if the obvious question and its obvious solution are just a little too simple? Considered further, a deeper and more complex question emerges: Are there specific benefits to fully integrating women into the combat arms? Does integrating women into the combat arms serve as a combat multiplier, (achieving a measurable and predictable increase in combat power)?1 Does the war fighting capability of each branch of the combat arms becomes greater than the sum of their individual parts? And as we ask these questions, we must acknowledge that valid reasons exist for maintaining the existing ban against women in the combat arms. The justification for maintaining the ban is that male soldiers provide a predictable measure of superiority in their roles. Using the same logic, if female soldiers are demonstrably more effective in specific roles and missions, if their employment serves as a combat multiplier, would not it make sense to increase their use in such roles? Women The Combat Multiplier of Asymmetric Warfare