More Women at Arms?

Women have been part of the U.S.

Army since 1942, when the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps was formed. No longer a mere auxiliary, the Women's Army Corps today numbers 46,000, and there are 170 women in training to become officers at West Point. Now the Army is studying the whole role of women in uniform and trying to decide whether to add more of them. A 133-page special study released by the Pentagon last week concluded that yes, as many as 6,000 more women could be added--an important point in light of projections that the all-volunteer army may have trouble filling its ranks in the years ahead. The nine-month study examined the roles performed by company-size support units (but not actual combat outfits) within the Army. It found that 35% of the personnel in signal, military police, medical, maintenance and transportation units could be women without significantly affecting military efficiency. At the moment, women make up only about 5% of such units.

The study also discovered that when it comes to evaluations, the battle of the sexes is as ferocious as ever. Male officers and enlisted men rated their own performance considerably higher than that of the women, while women rated their own performance slightly higher than that of the men.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.