Women in combat, from World War II anti-Nazi Greek resistance to Viet Cong to Syrian Kurdish militia
- Female soldiers are rarely given combat roles or admitted to elite front-line units, yet history shows women have often taken up arms
- They were guerilla fighters and fired anti-aircraft guns in the Vietnam war, and the Kurdish YPJ militia in Syria are known as ‘the women who terrify Isis’
When Vietnamese women fighters were operating the anti-aircraft guns that protected the Gulf of Tonkin in North Vietnam, and female guerillas were stalking the wild mountain ranges of the nation’s Central Highlands, American women were kept well away from the front lines of the Vietnam war.
There was no need for American women to fight because the draft meant there was a seemingly endless supply of young American men who could be sent to join the conflict in the Southeast Asian nation.
The United States was not alone – the armed forces of many nations were late in recruiting women for combat roles. For centuries women were thought to lack the qualities necessary for combat, and to this day many armies deploy female soldiers in minor support roles.
Even in Israel, where military service is mandatory for both sexes, there has been a marked reluctance to send women to fight on the front line. As recently as 2014, the Israel Defence Force admitted that fewer than 4 per cent of the country’s women soldiers were in combat roles, with most clustered in “combat support” positions.
Australia only lifted its ban on female combat soldiers in 2013, Britain even later, in 2016. In May 2019, the British Special Air Service (SAS) accepted its first female recruit, and this year, 28-year-old trailblazer Captain Rosie Wild was the first woman to pass the British Parachute Regiment’s gruelling selection process.
