The ability to draft our daughters and put them on the front lines to die in foreign wars and pointless peacekeeping missions along with our sons does not strike me as progress.
When I first heard the serious proposals of women in combat in the 1990s, I thought it was a liberal way to make people want to oppose war - because you don’t want 19 year old pixies getting blown up.
You are spot-on target with that. The purpose of this move is to make it politically impossible for us to send troops into combat ever again.
When they interview old 60’s radicals like Bill Ayers they always asked if they’ve changed their minds on anything since those days. And the most consistent answer is “in hindsight, I would not have ended the draft”, for that very same reason.