Jonathan Zimmerman: Whose Daughters Will Engage in Combat?

Jonathan Zimmerman is Professor of Education and History and Director of the History of Education Program, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

Now that women can assume combat roles in the military, I've got a question for you: Whose daughters will do the combatting?

Not mine. And not yours, either, if they live in a leafy, upper-middle-class suburb like the one where my two girls have grown up.

That's because the military draws overwhelmingly from the middle and lower-middle classes of our society. And that's what most of our news coverage has ignored, in the rush to congratulate the Pentagon for removing the ban on women in combat.

Let's be clear: the Pentagon should be congratulated. Thousands of female medics, drivers, and other servicewomen have already seen battle overseas. But they have often been blocked from key promotions because they lacked official "combat" designations....