Fifty years ago the founders of the Women's Royal Australian Army corps could not have envisaged that women would be serving near the front line in battle fatigues in East Timor in 2000.

The WRAAC was formed in 1951 as an autonomous corps managed by women. It was effectively disbanded 33 years later when significant changes in military thinking, community values, and women's expectations resulted in the integration of women in the Australian Regular Army.

This history of women in the Australian Army traces women's struggle for a place in the most male-dominated profession.

It encompasses a campaign for equal opportunity in the workplace that culminated in women gaining the right to have a career in the army regardless of their marital status and whether they have children. With these gains came the alignment and integration of training, including weapons training for women and the opening of combat-related units to women.

Along the way, the debates have raged.

Can there, or should there, be exact gender equality? Should women have to meet male physical standards to be considered equal? Should the military have been exempted from the Sex Discrimination Act 1984? Do women want to fight in the front line? How do individual women negotiate the tensions provoked by such questions.

The journey was not straightforward; nor was it painless.

Some women resigned, bitterly disillusioned, and others regretted the loss of autonomy the Women's Royal Australian Army Corps had enjoyed. All had to confront and contend with changing community attitudes and radical changes in the role of women in the Australian Defence Force.