Reports & Toolkits

Serious attention has focused on women’s roles in the military since the end of the Persian Gulf War. As a result of women’s performance in Desert Storm, Congress repealed the law barring women from combat aircraft assignments and established a Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces to study whether additional positions should be opened to women. This paper outlines the law as it currently pertains to women’s assignability, provides arguments against and in favor of opening combat positions to qualified women, discusses the work of the Presidential Commission, and makes recommendations for changes to law and policy.