Allowing women to serve in combat will open the upper echelons of military leadership to more women, creating a more diverse leadership team and offering differing viewpoints on challenges facing the military today, analysts said.
Retired Army Gen. Ann Dunwoody, the first woman to achieve four-star rank, said that as she ascended through the ranks, she found her peers were mostly white men with similar opinions. Bringing more women to the senior leadership table, she said, will enable the military to find better, more creative solutions to any problem.
“When you’re sitting around that table in the Pentagon, if everyone looks like you, you’re not having a very diverse conversation, and everyone will get the same answer you got,” said Dunwoody, the author of A Higher Standard, a book on leadership. “But if you surround yourself with the best and brightest of people from all walks of life, that will give you different solutions, different views and will give you best solution to complex problems.”
Women make up nearly 17 percent of officers in the four Defense Department services, but just 5.5 percent of one-star officers as of July, according to numbers provided by the Pentagon. There are only four female four-star officers across the military: one in the Navy and three in the Air Force, services that have long had the majority of their jobs open to women.
Across the enlisted ranks, women comprise about 15 percent of the population, but only 8 percent of E-9s, the highest enlisted rank, are women.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. David Barno said he asked a woman to be his senior enlisted adviser while he commanded forces in Afghanistan because he knew she was talented and would bring a different perspective.
“I knew she’d be able to see things and give me insights I wouldn’t get from an equally qualified man in that position,” said Barno, who serves as a distinguished practitioner in residence at American University’s School of International Service.
The services are finalizing their recommendations on which if any combat positions should remain male-only. The list must be submitted to Defense Secretary Ash Carter by Oct. 1, when he will review recommendations from the service secretaries, hear input from other service leaders. Secretary Carter will make a final decision on any exemptions by Jan. 1.
Barno said opening these combat positions to women is “the last final barrier to fall” to having more women reach senior ranks, noting that about 90 percent of top military leaders come from combat arms specialties.
“It will allow women to move into parts of the military that have traditionally produced senior leaders,” he said.
Supporters of integration on Capitol Hill agree that cultivating more high-ranking women will make the military stronger.
“For too long, women have been excluded from combat roles, and as a consequence female soldiers have not been provided the same opportunities, deterring women from advancing up the chain of command,” said Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., and the highest ranking woman on the House Armed Services Committee.
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., said having more women in uniform may also change the conversation about challenges in the military like sexual assault and providing better healthcare for female service members.
The effect, however, won’t be immediate. Barno said opening combat jobs to women will “definitely change the equation two to three decades from now,” noting that it takes on average 35 years to create a four-star general from when a service member joins.
One of the places the change may first have an effect is at military academies, where more women may be interested once they can serve in any job and the schools themselves may be able to recruit more women, Barno said.
“If every job is now open to women, we may see a growth of women interested in going to the academies, which will recruit and change leadership dynamics over time,” he said.
Women today make up about 25 percent of the population at service academies, according to Defense Department data.
