THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 28, 1996 TAG: 9603280403
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
Despite gains for women in the military, the American public is not ready to see them in front-line combat roles, the first woman to be selected for promotion to three-star general said Wednesday.
Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Carol A. Mutter, 50, who was nominated for the promotion Tuesday, told a Pentagon news conference it will take time to change attitudes about women in combat.
``In large measure in this country there is a feeling that until we really need women to get into the front lines and have that kind of risk we ought not do that,'' she said.
``It's based on, in every society there are the protectors and the protected. Women generally are the protected because they are necessary for propagation of the species.''
In 1993, based in part on the performance of women who served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Congress greatly expanded the number of positions open to women, including jobs that today can bring them indirectly into the line of fire. But the prohibition on women performing front-line combat roles was retained.
Mutter said she saw no signs that the public was pushing Congress to lift the ban. ``I'm not sure the American people are ready to see their women in front-line units with rifles in face-to-face combat with the enemy,'' she said.
But asked by a reporter what she would say to a female Marine who felt cheated by the ban on combat jobs for women, Mutter replied, ``Stick around and it probably will change.''
President Clinton nominated Mutter to be deputy chief of staff for manpower and reserve affairs for the Marines. She is commander of Marine Corps Systems Command at Quantico.
She was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marines upon graduation from Northern Colorado University in 1967.
Her promotion to lieutenant general - a rank never before attained by an American woman - must be approved by the Senate. ILLUSTRATION: Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Carol A. Mutter, 50, has been selected
for promotion to three-star general.
by CNB