WASHINGTON — Four female service members filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday seeking to overturn the Pentagon’s exclusion of women from many combat roles, arguing that the restrictions are unconstitutional and have hindered their careers.
The plaintiffs have all served in Iraq or Afghanistan and each performed dangerous combat-related missions. Two were awarded Purple Hearts — a combat decoration — after they were wounded on the battlefield.
“The shrapnel that tore through the vehicle that day didn’t stop because I’m a female," Army Staff Sgt. Jennifer Hunt, who was injured in Iraq by a roadside bomb while she was riding in a Humvee, said in a telephone interview. She said the Pentagon’s combat exclusion policy assumes that women are less capable than men, “which is I think one of the biggest errors the military can make."
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco against Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, is the latest legal attempt to force the Pentagon to lift its longstanding ban on women serving in most ground combat units. In May, two female Army reservists filed a similar lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.
In both cases, the women are accusing the Pentagon of moving too slowly to recognize the reality of modern war zones, where the military has become dependent on female troops to fight the enemy even though on paper they are barred from doing so in many cases. In addition to Hunt, the plaintiffs are Marine Capt. Zoe Bedell, Marine 1st Lt. Colleen Farrell and Air Force Maj. Mary Jennings Hegar.
Responding to pressure from Congress and female veterans, the Pentagon announced in February that it would open about 14,000 combat-related positions to female troops, including tank mechanics and intelligence officers on the front lines.
But the Defense Department said it would keep 238,000 other positions — about one-fifth of the regular active-duty military — off-limits to women, pending further review. Virtually all of those jobs are in the Army and Marine Corps.
