According to a poll released Friday, an overwhelming number of Americans are in favor of women serving in combat.
The
results of a Gallup poll conducted with 513 adults showed strong support for the proposal from both men and women. Both sexes seemed to be in agreement, with 76 percent of women and 73 percent of men claiming to be in favor of the idea. Seventy-four percent of those polled said they would vote for the move, while only twenty percent said they would vote against such a plan.
The biggest disparity fell along party lines. Eighty-three percent of Democrats would support women in combat, while 70 percent of Republicans look upon the proposal favorably.
The poll, conducted on January 24th, has a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percentage points.
Those who are younger are more likely to favor the policy than are those who are older. Among those aged 18 to 49, 84% favor the policy, compared with 63% of those aged 50 and older -- a difference of 21 percentage points.
Gallup noted that it has asked Americans over the years about their support of women in battleground roles, and the majority have supported it. Gallup has found at least a majority of Americans in favor of it since 1992, including 74 percent in 2007.
Since Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced Thursday that the Pentagon would open as many as 230,000 positions in combat lines to women, the reviews have been mixed. Some have expressed concern about how women in combat would affect the core mission of the military and some soldiers have worried whether they can reach the fitness levels required to do the job.
But change will be implemented slowly, Panetta said, because he urged America to "get it right." The Army and the Marines will present plans to open most jobs to women by May 15, and each service will have until January 2016 to make the case for why some positions should remain closed.
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