Women at war: Equality under fire

Just after the invasion of Iraq, the Army decided to include a Yorkie bar in the ration packs for soldiers in the field. Then someone noticed the slogan: "It's not for girls."

The military machine moved into action and the embarrassing error was rectified. These days Nestlé manufactures almost 2.4 million Yorkies a year with the strap line "It's not for civvies!". In a military that now makes maternity uniforms, even the chocolate bars have to follow equal opportunity guidelines.

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The capture by Iran of Leading Seaman Faye Turney, 26, has highlighted the issue of women in the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. While women remain barred from any roles where they might have to "close with and kill the enemy", every day in Iraq and Afghanistan they carry the same SA80 rifles in situations where they might have to return fire.

There are 17,810 women in the regular British forces, making up 9 per cent of boots on the ground, in the air and at sea. The last six years alone have seen a 12 per cent increase.

The same is true of many of the nations that fight alongside the British in Afghanistan. In 1961 there were just 30,000 women in Nato uniforms; today there are more than 288,000.

While women have yet to occupy the top three ranks in Britain, there are two army brigadiers and one naval commodore. Women make up 11.2 per cent of officers - a 20 per cent increase since 2001.

Their physical strength and capacity for aggression remains a topic of debate, but their leadership skills and courage have been repeatedly proved in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Captain Sarah Davies, 29, was a troop commander with the Royal Logistics Corps in charge of 57 soldiers during the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003. In the black of night, headlights extinguished, she led a convoy through the Iraqi desert to Az Zubayr, transporting ammunition across a land pitted with lethal ditches and possibly mined.

At one point some Territorial Army soldiers under her command became paralysed with fear, unable to drive any further. She got out and led the convoy on foot, inching forward through the darkness.

"Afterwards I got the boys together and said 'You have always got to trust where I will take you is right, and if I get you into a difficult situation, I will get you out'," she explained.

"I think it needs to be recognised that we are here doing a similar job, playing a significant role. It is asymmetric warfare. There is no frontline," she added.

The nurses in the Crimean War were the first to serve officially with British forces, and many women worked on the frontline as drivers, cooks and nurses in the First World War. During the Second World War, while women were not recruited into regular combat units, the Special Operations Executive (SOE) used female agents and radio operators in occupied Europe. By 1949, the Women's Royal Army Corps was formed. Yet it was not until 1984 that women were admitted to officer training at Sandhurst.

The last 15 years have seen key changes - abolishing the separate women's services and allowing them to serve on fighting ships and become combat pilots. By 1992, women were no longer discharged when they became pregnant, and six years later the number of posts open to them in the Army increased from 47 per cent to 70 per cent.

In 2001, the new Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, said he had no problems with women in the armed forces "being killed on the battlefield, shot down or being mutilated" and neither did the wider public. The comments were in marked contrast to those of his predecessor, General Sir Charles Guthrie, who insisted: "We are not ready yet for women on the frontline, and maybe we will never be ready."

Captain Anthea Burdus, 40, who joined the Army 23 years ago, has lived through the changes. As a young sergeant joining a new regiment, she recalls walking into the Regimental Sergeant Major's office. Barely looking up, he barked: "Get your hair cut."

"I started talking and he realised I was a woman and said he was terribly sorry. It was a good way to break the ice," explained Captain Burdus. She later became the first female Regimental Sergeant Major of her regiment. "Initially everyone was a little taken aback. But after the first month it was no different. Everyone got over it and didn't see me as a lady. I was the RSM," she said.

Now serving with the 22 Signal Regiment, Captain Burdus outranks her warrant officer husband, who has become used to sharing the care of their three-year-old son George. As in the case of Leading Seaman Turney, whose husband Adam is a Petty Officer in the Navy, the military makes every effort to ensure that one parent is left at home while the other is abroad.

"We join the armed forces with our eyes open. The fact you are a mum makes no difference. There are a lot of fathers doing the same job. People always ask the same question 'How do you cope?' And I think 'Do you ask the men?' I have seen a lot of men away from their children for the first time who find it terribly, terribly hard," she said.

Women remain barred from the infantry, the Royal Marines, the Royal Armoured Corps, the Household Cavalry, the RAF Regiment and, for health reasons, submarines as well as posts as mine-clearance divers.

In the Army, the only women listed in a combat role are 23 Army Air Corps pilots, some of whom now fly Apaches in Afghanistan. This year, for the first time, female officers of the AAC will guard the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

While the RAF has proved itself the least sexist of the services, with 96 per cent of roles open to women, the Navy and Army still ban females from about 30 per cent of jobs. Yet each day pilots, medics, engineers and signals staff serve in an eternally fluid frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In some cases the anomaly is even greater. Gunner Alicia Hussain, 18, was in Basra last year when her Royal Artillery regiment was performing an infantry role, patrolling the streets of Iraq's southern city.

"We get paid the same, we should do the same job. Why can't people accept that the British military has moved on in the last 20 years?" she said bluntly.

Flight Lieutenant Penny Grayson, 33, who was piloting Merlin helicopters, often under fire, added: "I don't think people back home appreciate what we do. You say you are an RAF pilot and they look shocked."

Certainly many women in the forces resent the questioning of their presence. Mention of the topic is met with a weary look and rolled eyeballs.

Some studies, however, have concluded that women do not have the appropriate physical strength or capacity for aggression for combat roles. Others disagree and point to the medals earned for bravery.

Just two days ago bomb disposal officer Sergeant Michelle Cunningham, of 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment RLC, was awarded the Queen's Gallantry medal for placing herself in grave danger to extinguish a fire at a pyrotechnics factory which had killed one civilian worker and threatened to explode for a second time.

A week earlier, Private Michelle Norris, 19, of the Royal Army Medical Corps, became the first woman to be awarded the Military Cross for giving her injured commander life-saving treatment while coming under enemy fire in Maysan, Iraq, last June.

It is not unusual these days to meet a woman who outranks her husband, father or brother. Captain Kelly Goodall, 28, the daughter of a former Royal Engineer Commando corporal, is senior to both her father and brother.

"My younger brother Lloyd is an engineer, a Sapper," she explained. "The day he passed out, he asked me to come down in uniform. He marched up to me and saluted and then said with a smile 'Sis, that's the one and only time I do that'."

Warriors, saints and snipers: a short history of war heroines

Queen Boudicca

Queen of the Celtic Iceni people of Norfolk, Boudicca led a major uprising of the tribes against the Romans after being flogged by a Roman

Joan of Arc

A heroine of France and, later, saint. In 1431, at the age of 19, Joan was burnt at the stake after helping recover her homeland from English domination.

Grace O' Malley

Known as the Pirate Queen of Ireland, O'Malley took to piracy against Great Britain in the 16th century after her husband was killed in battle.

Hannah Snell

An Englishwoman who dressed as a man to become a soldier in the 18th century. Snell fought many battles and was injured many times.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko

A Soviet sniper during the Second World War, Lt Pavlichenko killed 309 soldiers before being injured in 1942.

Michelle Norris

The first British woman to be awarded the Military Cross for bravery, at the age of 18 she risked her life to save her commander in Iraq last year.

Females in the forces: the successes (and failures) of military sexual equality

17,900 The total number of women in the UK armed forces

9.1 The percentage of the UK armed forces who are women

1 per cent of combat soldiers are women

11.2 per cent of all officers are female

8,270 The total number of women in the British Army

1,191 women serve on 55 ships in the Royal Navy

12.3 per cent of the total personnel in the Royal Air Force are female

2 The number of female brigadiers - the highest rank held by women in the Army

2 British women soldiers have been killed in action in Iraq since the invasion of 2003. Flight Lieutenant Sarah-Jayne Mulvihill, 32, and Staff Sgt Sharron Elliott, 34

0 women in the Household Cavalry, Royal Marines, Infantry and the RAF Regiment. It is not allowed

96 per cent of jobs in the RAF are open to women

1 The number of female commodores - the highest rank held by a woman in the Royal Navy