Women in the Military

Of the more than half a million U.S. troops sent to the Persian Gulf during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, about seven percent were women. The deployment of so many women renewed debate about whether the ban on women in combat should be lifted. GAO visited 10 support units sent to the Persian Gulf with both men and women to learn of their experiences. Overall, the unit commanders with whom GAO spoke generally had positive things to say about women's performance in the Persian Gulf War. Women in the military units GAO visited worked on a broad variety of assignments during the deployment, and men and women endured equally harsh encampment facilities and conditions. Health and hygiene problems during the deployment were considered inconsequential for both sexes. Cohesion in mixed-gender units was generally considered to be effective during the deployment, and unit commanders often described cohesion as being best while the units were deployed. Pregnancy was cited as a cause for women returning early from deployment or not deploying at all, but the groups GAO spoke with generally identified few actual cases.

GAO found that: (1) unit commanders and focus group participants gave positive assessments of women's performance in the Persian Gulf War; (2) women performed a wide range of tasks throughout the deployment area before, during, and after hostilities; (3) women and men endured the same austere encampment conditions and often went without any facilities at all; (4) the focus group reported that unit cohesion was most important in smaller units, such as platoons or sections, but gender homogeneity was not a requirement for effective unit cohesion during deployment; (5) some women and men were unavailable for deployment or returned early for a variety of reasons; and (6) undeployable personnel had a greater impact on units that deployed in their entirety than on units that deployed only a portion of their personnel.