Overturning the “Risk Rule” of 1988, Opting for New Risks: U.S. Women Servicemembers and the War in Afghanistan

Abstract

The evolution of the status of American women as warriors between Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm in 1990-1991 and the War in Afghanistan, beginning in 2001 [and simultaneously the Iraq War in 2003] is explored. This era of American civil-military history included rescinding the ‘Risk Rule’ of 1988, the formal ban on women serving in ground combat units. This generation of women’s legitimate military service as warriors began. The Afghanistan War period also exposed, however, the physical and emotional risks military women often face from their own colleagues on a global scale in the form of sexual violence. As a society, we purposefully must eliminate such risks inherent in the contemporary All-Volunteer Force (AVF) and clean up the resulting messes before we even consider taking the risk of conscription and mass mobilization of American women in our next war.