As hard as it may be for some to fathom, a new generation of feminists can be found in the Military.

Last Friday, the NYT’s did a story on the U.S. Military using mixed martial arts as a training regimen for soldiers as well as potential recruiting tool (pool) among the 18 to 34 year old fans of the sport.

According to the Times, military bases across the country hold MMA tournaments among the soldiers stationed there with victors advancing to regional and national tournaments.

On one base in North Carolina, 9 women competed in the matches. Surprisingly, they’ weren’t pitted exclusively against each other but against the men.

One woman, eliminated early but undeterred, remarked that she knew she would be the underdog because the men would be stronger.

In a way, I’m as impressed by the men taking part as I am by the women. With participants scheduled to be deployed to Iraq the following week, I can imagine (of course I’m just guessing) the men feeling somewhat reassured that the women they’ll be deployed with are every bit the warriors they are.

There has been ample coverage of sexual misconduct, harassment, and rape in the armed forces for women soldiers. No doubt the military has a long way to go in fully integrating women fairly and equally among the ranks. Yet the image of women squaring off against men in hand to hand combat—on the verge of deployment to Iraq no less—is as powerful an indicator of the evolution of gender roles in society today.

In that cage in North Carolina (MMA fights are often held in octagonal cages) the values and principles of hand-to-hand combat, the way of the warrior, so inherently male in history, became inherently female as well.

The woman who eventually manages to win such a tournament against her male counterparts will have smashed one important glass ceiling with a gloved fist. The one that keeps competitors, soldiers and warriors from declaring themselves the best of the best, not just the best among women, still assumed to be inferior to a mans accomplishment in the same field.

The fact that MMA, despite its bloody reputation, relies so heavily on technique rather than just speed and strength makes this a very real possibility (think of all the older men, considered long past their prime in other sports, who regular defeat their younger opponents in the UFC).

I have no doubt there are women who dream of such accomplishments and the brave new world that gives them the opportunity.

Science fiction has already imagined this world in episodes of Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Battle Star Galactica and in comic books and the movies. With so many young men and women being raised on a steady diet of this popular culture. Will they be ready for such a world?

To date, women rarely see combat on the front lines and. There are no female battlefield commanders that I know of. If there were (or are?), I imagine so much of the current arguments now being waged over Hillary Clintons campaign about her gender and her ability to lead would be rendered senseless.

That would come as a great relief to this Obama supporter, one with plenty of misgivings about Clinton though none about the limitations of what women can accomplish.