Women in the Line of Fire: What You Should Know About Women in the Military

In 2004, Erin Solaro went to Iraq to study American servicewomen—what they were doing, how well they were doing it, how they were faring in combat. In 2005, she went to Afghanistan on the same mission. Having spent time embedded with combat troops and conducting stateside interviews with numerous analysts and veterans, Solaro is convinced that the time to drop all remaining restrictions on women's full equality under arms is now. 

The Army, the country, the women of America—and of the world—need it. Women in the Line of Fire details why this will not be an easy task. Although 15 percent of the military is female, the Army and Marines still resist acknowledging what is, in fact, already happening—women are fighting, and fighting well. 

For the Religious Right and the cultural conservatives, women in combat is a hot-button issue in their campaign to "take back the culture.” But for the young men and women on the lines, brought up in an America where equality between the sexes was never second guessed and where making up the rules as you go along comes with the territory, it's the new reality.

Erin Solaro has been a radical feminist, Army reserve officer, defense analyst and historian, professional dog trainer, overeducated secretary, and journalist. She has appeared on public and network television and talk radio, and published more than twenty articles on military affairs, including two series from Iraq and Afghanistan in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Baltimore Sun, the Christian Science Monitor, the Naval Institute's Proceedings, and the Marine Corps Gazette. Since 2004, Solaro has become a major national voice on women in the military and the new civic feminism. She lives in Seattle with her husband, writer Philip Gold, and assorted animals.