The powers that be in Australia have announced that they have a 5-year plan to allow women to serve in Front Line Combat Roles in the Australian Defence Force. They have vowed that to serve in such a role will be competency based, and that they will not lower the current standards (for either gender). To me, this seems like a fair enough decision - if you're good enough to do a job, then you should be allowed to do the job.
The current objections (and of course there will always be objects) are that the enemy might rape women on the front lines, that people will react negatively as soon as the first woman gets killed in the line of duty, and that there is a need to change the culture of the military as there is a certain mind-set in place.
I'm going to ignore the rape issue. I'm not saying that it isn't an issue, I am just not going to discuss it here - if you want to, by all means start a thread about it.
I'm not going to discuss the first death objection. See above.
It is the cultural mind-set that I find interesting, and think needs exploring. Is the military the best place to change this mind-set, or should we start earlier?
A good place to start might be team sports (I'm in no way suggesting that war is like football, btw). Teams are a close knit unit, that rely on communication, skill and generally rely on team unity to be successful. If we introduced "mixed" sporting teams, where the players were selected on merit and merit alone, it might be beneficial. Start back in grade school, and get the kids used to the idea, so that it becomes second nature by the time they graduate high school and college. Get them accustomed to being selected based on their skill sets, and knowing that if you're good enough, then it doesn't matter what sex you are. Get everyone used to bonding with people based on competency. So, by the time these same people are in the military together, on the front line, they know they can trust their team mates, because they are there because they deserve to be there, just like everyone else.
Thoughts?