Women in Combat

I found an article that talks about women's involvement in the military today in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Today, there are many more women enrolled in the military in various positions and they are doing the same jobs as men. The integration of women into armed forces in something that is relatively new in the United States. It wasn’t until the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts that women really got involved in the combat side of wars.
Though female success remains largely hidden from the public, experts including David W. Barno, a retired lieutenant general, Dr. Mansoor, a military history professor, and John A. Nagl, a retired lieutenant colonel, say “it is only a matter of time before regulations that have restricted women’s participation in war will be adjusted to meet the reality forged over the last eighty years.” And the involvement of women will be widespread.
In the past, women don’t participate in the combat side of wars. They stayed on the sidelines working at home or as a nurse for the military but rarely fought. This is a recent change that has happened. If American women in the past wanted to fight in the wars they would have to pretend to be men.
Deborah Sampson is one woman who changed her name and cut her hair, transforming herself into a man just to fight for the Continental Army. She fought gallantly but wasn’t given the credit she deserved just because she was a female. This has finally changed. Lisa Bodenburg, fighting in Iraq in 2008, was a Marine sergeant. She earned a Specialist Alfaro Bronze Star for valor and had previously received a combat action badge for fending off insurgents as a machine gunner.
Though some things have changed, women are still looked down upon in some aspects of the military. Women are barred from joining combat branches like the infantry, Special Forces, and field artillery units. However, women can lead male troops into combat as officers, but can’t serve with the men in battle. This is discrimination against women that was seen years ago, but it is slowly changing as Americans are more accepting of women in combat.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/us/16women.html