With an automatic rifle slung over her shoulder and her sights trained on Taliban territory, Alex Neil looks every inch a frontline soldier.
Her role as a supply driver takes her deep into the war zone. She has been engaged by the enemy and is expected to eliminate any insurgent who poses a lethal threat to her colleagues. Given that responsibility, Alex, 25, is a soldier first and a woman second.
Everything about her appearance is geared towards operational effectiveness. Her mousy hair is pulled up inside her helmet, her body armour is strapped tightly to her torso and her SA80 rifle is fully loaded, with 30 high-explosive rounds ready for firing.
Overall, Alex comes across as a contented soldier who relishes her role as part of 12 Close Support Logistic Regiment. And, as the name of her unit suggests, she is seldom far from the action.
But one aspect of military life perturbs Alex – that, as a woman, she is banned from transferring to any regiment in the infantry or the armoured corps.
The decision appears blatant discrimination by the Ministry of Defence and it is now under scrutiny following a landmark step in America allowing women to fill all military roles.
‘If a woman is good enough, why not? Our infantry should definitely be opened up to female recruits,’ says Alex, fixing me with a steely gaze. ‘We carry the same amount of kit as the guys, we’re trained the same and we do many of the same jobs.
‘If it is opened up, I would certainly be tempted. Do the boys want us to join? I’m not sure. We work very hard and we deserve the chance. I am fit – I do a lot of running – and while some men might be fitter, by no means all are. I want a challenge, that is why I joined the British Army. Before that I was working in an office for four years.
‘I knew I had to get out of there and find something more exciting.’
Alex certainly shows no signs of wilting under the dangers and hardships she endures – the dusty conditions and the sleep deprivation – when we meet in Helmand’s Nahr-e Bughra district.
This is the area that was once christened the ‘Heart of Darkness’, such was the potency of the Taliban threat. But wearing her greyish green ‘multi-cam’ fatigues, Alex effortlessly blends into her harsh surroundings.
She says that spending so much time with the men in her unit has meant that their speech and behaviour has rubbed off on her. ‘I’ve ended up speaking like them and picking up their crude jokes,’ she says, ‘because we’re all part of the same team, the guys and the girls. Our job is to bring essential supplies to locations like this.
We’re here for anything from six to 36 hours at a time, delivering ammo, food, you name it. And I have been engaged by the enemy before, so I definitely know I’m on the front line.’
Back at Camp Bastion, the British HQ in Helmand, I saw scores of female soldiers maintaining their fitness with long runs and sprint sessions. They also carry more equipment than they used to on patrols. Pint-sized Private Nichola Bateman, for example, routinely carries 90lb on her back on battlefield hikes.
This feat is all the more remarkable as her burden equates to fully two- thirds of her bodyweight.
But the bubbly, 5ft 1in medic is too modest to accept any praise for it. ‘It might sound like a lot to carry but I get trained to do that, it is my job,’ she insists. ‘I go out on patrol with the guys as their medical support, with the same dangers. It is scary but I got used to it and learned more every day.
Treating my first casualty was nerve-racking but I don’t think he cared if I was a woman or a man.’
Like Alex, Nichola is eager to emphasise that her gender is a secondary issue. So too is Nichola’s age. She is only 21 but is already a fully qualified Combat Medical Technician (First Class) – after leaving school with no qualifications for a medical career.
Nichola, from Darlington, Co Durham, adds: ‘First and foremost out here I am a medic, not a woman. We are all treated the same, male and female soldiers.
‘I know the public see it a bit differently, which is quite annoying, but we are equals. There are so many women on the front line doing very important jobs. I am just one of them and the guys treat me just the same. We’re all a band of brothers.
‘Do I think they’d treat me differently if I got wounded – would they lose their concentration and focus? I don’t think so.
‘I am lucky to be surrounded by such talented guys. And I am here with them because when I left school none of the jobs available on civvy street were as exciting or challenging as the military. So I joined the Royal Army Medical Corps.
‘I would recommend the same career to any woman or man. Yes, it is dangerous but I expect the danger now and deal with it on a daily basis.’
The MoD insists there remains no way of knowing if mixed-gender teams function as well as all-male teams in close-combat environments – a key argument used to justify the exclusion of women from combat units.
Its most recent review of the policy, published in 2010, said women’s capability under fire was beyond doubt but added that the situations they currently find themselves in were ‘not typical of the small tactical teams which are required deliberately to close with and kill the enemy’.
With military chiefs opposed to the units being opened up to women, the then Secretary of State for Defence Liam Fox, endorsed the review.
His decision was legally watertight because in test cases – brought before the UK courts and the European Court of Justice – gender inequality has been permitted when it has been intended to address a legitimate aim and was proportionate in the means of achieving that aim.
The only glimpse of hope for female soldiers is that, under European Union law, the UK must reassess such discriminations at least every eight years.
However, not every female on the front line wants to beat the guys at their own game. Twenty-four-year-old Private Alisha Henderson, originally from Edinburgh, is only too happy to play a supporting role.
Speaking in the canteen at Forward Operating Base Shawqat, in Nad-e Ali district, she said: ‘Some women in the Army say you should push for equality – but I think it is impossible for most women to be as strong as men. I feel my role is in the kitchen and I’d be more of a hindrance to the lads if I went out on the ground with them. I am happy looking after them in here.
‘That is not to say I don’t have a frontline role, because I do. While I am a chef I also do guard duties two or three times a week, watching to see if the enemy approach the base. There’s a rifle and a machine gun in the guard post and, if required to, I would engage.’
An MoD spokesman said there were no plans to review the policy.
