Mortal Combat

Women are banned from serving in frontline combat positions in the US Army, but the demands of the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan mean those ground rules are breaking down. So far more than 100 American and British women have died in the two wars.

The BBC’s Lucy Williamson joins Army Reserve Major Paula Broadwell, a West Point graduate, now at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Broadwell’s recent op-ed in the Boston Globe argues that regardless of the policy, women are already in combat roles.

Audio: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now. Host: Deborah Becker.