Gwyn Harries-Jenkins Women in Extended Roles in the Military: Legal Issues The Historical Perspective

Over the past 30 years, women have come to play an increasingly import-ant part in western armed forces. An international change in military personnel policies has been variously attributed to the downsizing of the military following the end of the Cold War; a demographic trough; demands in the parent society for the extension of gender equality; the example of the wider participation of women in the national labour force; the shift away from male conscription to the recruitment of an integrated all-volunteer force (AVF); shortages of male recruits; and legal restrictions on the exclusion of women. Even so, the absolute number of military women in the West con-tinues to be small. Quantitatively, they continue to be underrepresented in armed forces in comparison with their relative numbers in society. Rarely does the proportion of women in the military approach 15 percent (US 14.0 percent; New Zealand 14.5 percent), let alone exceed this (Australia 16.8 percent). The position in a selection of western armed forces is given in Table 1. For comparison, the percentage of women in the 18–32 age range, from which military personnel tend to be drawn, is also given. There is still some way to go before women represent approximately half of the military popu-lation, which is the proportion they usually represent in the population at large. It is significant that in some instances the increase in the percentage of women in a national military is not matched by an increase in their absolute number. Indeed, the latter may decline. This is shown in the case of Belgium where, although the percentage of women in the armed forces increased fro