Mary E. Hunt

About the Author: Mary E. Hunt, a Roman Catholic feminist theologian, is co-director of the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual WATER). WATER is a nonprofit institute in Silver Spring, Maryland, which explores religious issues from feminist perspective.

Women in combat came to public attention during the U.S. invasion of Panama in late 1989. The situation in the Middle East raises the question of their presence once more. The result of the discussion is a no-win situation for women, damned to discrimination if they cannot fight and damned to combat if they can. This reality presents a dilemma for religious feminists who believe in the equality of women but reject combat as a solution to global conflict. The dynamic is reminiscent of the struggle for equality...