How Accurate Are Gender-Role Stereotypes? Female marine recruits practice firing rifles during boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina. U.S. women were once barred from all combat duty. In January 2013, the U.S. Defense Secretary announced that the ban against women in combat would be phased out by 2016. Yet, even when women were still barred from infantry and other land-based combat units, dozens of female soldiers were killed by military attacks on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. How does the active participation of women in the military violate traditional gender-role stereotypes?

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