WASHINGTON – Three years after serving in Iraq, Sgt. Carolyn Schapper is still working to regain a “normal” life. While she was serving as an intelligence officer in Iraq, Schapper saw her fair share of violence. The truck she was driving was hit by a roadside bomb twice; her unit came under mortar fire, sniper fire and countless other close calls.
Schapper is not the only woman with these war stories. A recent report released by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) highlighting the unique needs of female service members and veterans spotlighted these changing roles of women. According to the report “Women Warriors: Supporting She Who Has Borne the Battle,” more than 212,000 female service members have been deployed during the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as of January 2009. These women make up approximately 11 percent of American forces deployed to the region.
However, the roles of female troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are different from those of previous conflicts.
Erin Mulhall, author of the IAVA “Women Warriors” report, puts her findings into the context of women’s changing roles in the military. (Jessica Harbin/MNS)
Brig. Gen. Wilma Vaught (Ret.), sees this disconnect as a byproduct of the types of conflicts the U.S. is engaged in.
“Very basically, the policies say that [women] are not to be assigned to a direct combat unit, a unit who’s mission is to take on the enemy,” Vaught said. “But as we are seeing in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s very difficult to really live by what some might say is the full intent of that regulation.”
Vaught and Schapper both agree that terms like “front line” and “direct combat” have lost their meaning in the current conflicts. Whereas in conflicts like World War II and the Vietnam War women might be on the frontlines in administrative jobs and in hospitals, today’s female warriors are “outside the wire,” traveling into Iraqi and Afghan cities.
Women traveling into local villages and settlements have proven to be a vital piece of American counter-insurgency strategy.
Erin Mulhall, the deputy policy director for research with IAVA and author of the “Women Warriors” report, said without women service members outside of the bases, the American military would have great obstacles dealing with local Iraqi and Afghan women.
“With these huge cultural challenges in the Middle East, with these conflicts, you need women on the front lines,” Erin Mulhall explained, drawing a direct connection between female troops on the front lines and the success of counterinsurgency techniques.