War Too Dangerous for Women?

Four women serving in the US Army are challenging a 1994 law which bans women from serving in ground combat, saying that the duty is too dangerous, and that female soldiers may be "distracting."

The UCLA represents the four women, noting that the law makes "women — as a class and solely because of their gender — ... barred from entire career fields." Because this law closes off 14,500 combat positions, the four soldiers and the UCLA want to change the almost twenty-year old law.

The pentagon has responded by saying that the Defense Department has recently begun adding more roles and positions. The UCLA and the women think is too little, too late.

The article I read contains fuller details about the case and more background on the stances each side is taking. I was surprised to see that this type of law, which essentially legally declares one gender as weaker or an object of sexual distraction, still exists in 2012.