I may be wrong 2many but it is my understanding that the present war in Iraq and Afghanistan is the first time woman have been stationed as infantry (which is what I assume you mean by fighting). Woman may have participated in previous wars in a number of ways but they were not fighting members of the infantry. Just the other day I was talking with a psychologist who works at a V.A. hospital about this very subject. However, our conversation was about how this new position for woman has led to a huge increase in rapes that the army are calling "combat sex trauma" or something like that. The problem is that because all the soldiers (men and women) are depending on each other for their lives it creates pressure to not report the rapes because you could end up dead for "ratting" on a rapist.