Women's Equality Day: Senate defense bill advances women’s equality in society and inclusion in the military

In time for the nation to mark Women’s Equality Day on Aug. 26, the Senate Armed Services Committee last month approved a fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act that would make groundbreaking policy shifts toward greater equality of women in society and inclusion in the U.S. armed forces.

The $777.9 billion bill would, among other provisions, require for the first time that women register for the selective service; move the prosecution of sexual assault and serious crimes out of the military chain of command; direct the military to adopt body composition standards based on “health science”; and expand service member benefits in areas such as child care, health care, parental leave and reproductive screening.

The measure, which authorizes $740.3 billion in spending for the Department of Defense (DOD) and $27.7 billion for national security agencies, must next be approved by full Senate and eventually reconciled with any House-passed measure.

The full House Armed Services Committee begins deliberations on its bill (H.R. 4350) on Sept. 1. Final passage of the NDAA typically occurs by the Oct. 1 start of the federal fiscal year.

The final contents of the legislation remain to be seen, of course. But Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, who chairs the panel’s personnel subcommittee, said the committee-passed provisions are “historic victories,” adding: “These monumental programs and provisions are now on their way to becoming law.”

Serving since the nation’s founding

If these provisions pass as part of the NDAA, historians may likely consider them important milestones in the evolution of women’s service in the U.S. military.

That service dates back to the Revolutionary War, according to the June 5, 2019, Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, “Diversity, Inclusion, and Equal Opportunity in the Armed Services: Background and Issues for Congress.”

However, it was not until 1901 that women could serve in uniform. They did so as part of the Army Nurse Corps and, a few years later, in the Navy Nurse Corps.

Though women later served abroad in World War I field hospitals, the publication noted, they were ineligible for retirement or Veterans’ benefits.

More than 350,000 women served in World War II, according to CRS, including nearly 1,100 who trained as aviators as part of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). The WASP transported, tested and delivered planes for repair, according to an Army webpage, “Women in the Army.” With many exclusions, Congress made women part of military services in the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948, CRS noted.

Over successive decades, according to CRS, female participation in the U.S. armed forces grew steadily. This is attributed in part to the equal rights movement, which takes hold from 1963 through 1980, when Congress passes laws banning gender discrimination in the civilian workplace and ending restrictions and limitations on female military service. This time coincides with the end of the Vietnam War and the draft and, in 1973, the establishment of the all-volunteer force.

Women’s service further expands during the 1990s. In the post-Sept. 11, 2001, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, still more women serve in combat roles. In 2015, DOD formalized the full integration of women in the armed forces, including into all combat roles.

Today, females make up nearly 17.4% of the active duty force. According to recent DOD data, of the 1,349,826 individuals serving in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, 234,685 are women.

Requiring women to sign up to be drafted

Even though every military service role is now open to women, they’ve never been required to register for selective service, otherwise known as the draft. (All males age 18-26 must register.) This would change under the Senate committee-passed version of the NDAA, which would amend the Military Selective Service Act to require female registration at age 18.

It’s unclear if female military service rates would be impacted one way or another if they’re required to sign up to be drafted if Congress reinstates one in the future. It would equalize among the genders the (currently theoretical) risk of being conscripted into military service.

The Senate committee-passed provision follows a recommendation issued last March by the congressionally established National Commission on Military, National and Public Service.

Debra Wada, who served as the commission’s vice chair for military service, told RallyPoint in May that the commission came to this conclusion after finding that women applicants for military service qualify at about the same rate as men. The military, she said, shouldn’t mobilize for a crisis without the skillsets of roughly half its population.

Prosecuting sexual assault and serious crimes

Another major component of the Senate committee’s NDAA is the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act, a much-debated bill to move the prosecution of sexual assault and serious crimes out of the military’s chain of command to independent military prosecutors.

The Senate panel measure also contains recommendations from the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military. These include requiring the military and National Guard to use a data-based prevention infrastructure to combat sexual assault and harassment, to use sexual harassment and assault metrics as a part of readiness tracking and reporting, and to remove the Sexual Assault Response Coordinator Program from the chain of command.

Other provisions in the Senate committee-passed NDAA include:

Child care. Asks DOD to address the lack of access to military child care and requires DOD to review and provide a briefing on health and safety violations at installation child development centers.

Health care. Authorizes coverage of preconception and prenatal carrier screening tests for some medical conditions under TRICARE, encourages DOD to implement a point-of-care ultrasound system in tactical combat casualty environments and directs DOD to add more virtual and telehealth options for families.

Paid parental leave. Includes up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave for both primary and secondary caregivers for births, adoptions or long-term foster placement of a child; allows more flexibility in the DOD Career Intermission Program; and permits two weeks of bereavement leave.

Pay increase. Provides a 2.7% pay raise for service members and DOD personnel.

Learn more

Read Gillibrand’s statement on inclusion of NDAA provisions: https://www.gillibrand.senate.gov/news/press?PageNum_rs=2&.

Read the Senate committee’s summary of its NDAA legislation: https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/press-releases/-sasc-completes-markup-of-fiscal-year-2022-national-defense-authorization-act.

Read RallyPoint’s May 17 article, “Congress, court weigh requiring females to register for the draft”: https://www.rallypoint.com/command-post/congress-court-weigh-requiring-females-to-register-for-the-draft.

Visit the House NDAA webpage: https://armedservices.house.gov/ndaa.