The minister for veterans affairs, Bruce Scott, has indicated that the Federal government it is about to consider a report by the Department of Defence that recommends that women should be able to serve in front-line military combat duties. The suggestion has drawn immediate fire from the Returned Services League which objects strongly to the idea of women serving in that frontline combat positions. A leading at feminist academic, either Cox, on the other hand has applauded the suggestion.
Already, 95 per cent of positions in the Australian armed forces are open to women. In theory, it would be possible for a woman to be Chief of the Defence Force or chief of any of the three armed services. However, while women remain excluded from some combat roles, they will always be at a disadvantage when it comes to promotion at the higher echelons of the Australian Defence Force. And there is every reason why women’s ills should be used there. After all, Queen Boadicea, with modest forces, cut the Roman ninth legion to bits in defending her homeland in the first century.
On a superficial level, there are practical difficulties for women at serving in front line combat positions. Some of them relate to questions of physical strength, in particular, the capacity to carry large amounts of weaponry and gear, and others relate to – – to put it euphemistically – – the special hygiene requirements of women. However, it would be a mistake to make too much of these things. It would be a mistake to take a war-movie view of the role of the defence forces. Sure, in the past, Australian troops have had to engage in a horrific fighting conditions – – conditions which strained the physical capacity of the strongest men. But all war is hell, whether it engages only men or whether it engages women girls and boys as well.
The fact that women would have been less physically capable of enduring the harsh conditions of previous combat roles is no reason to deny women those roles in the modern army. Australia should look to all the human resources available to it when it comes to the defence of the nation. In doing that, it is not just a question of marshalling females to be cannon fodder. It is also important to ensure that the nation has all possible female military leadership skills available to it. To do that females must experience the full range of combat duties or training for those duties, so that promotion to the highest ranks of the armed forces is not denied them.
In the middle of the past decade roles in a submarine and fighter-aircraft warfare were made open to women. At the time, dire predictions were made by the RSL and others that it would be unworkable. Their predictions proved untrue. Prime Minister John Howard has acknowledged that the female air force pilots who have flown him about the country are “”terrific”.
Australia will not be on its own if it enables women to take up combat roles. The United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway and Israel also allow women in combat roles.
Also, the government must look at the modern function of the Defence Force rather than be coloured by the past in which physical, close-conduct combat was of paramount importance. These days, the Australian Defence Force is more likely to be engaged in a peacekeeping activity and it even in full-scale war the role of the soldier is likely to be far more involved with hi-tech equipment that involves brain power, dexterity and power-assisted actions rather than just brute strength.