WHEN news reached Britain that 15 sailors had been captured in Iran, grave concerns were immediately raised.

Those concerns increased, however, when it was revealed that mother-of-one Leading Seaman Faye Turney was among them.

But while efforts to get Leading Seaman Turney, 26, and her 14 fellow sailors released intensify, the incident has sparked wider debate about the role of women in the armed forces.

As early as 1914 women were joining the forces, with 80,000 female non-combatants taking part in the First World War.

After the Second World War the importance of the role of women in the forces was recognised and the Women's Services were created, splitting into the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force during the early 1990s.

Today women make up almost one in ten of Britain's military personnel with women serving in a greater variety of roles than ever before, many of them front line.

The importance of females' roles in the armed forces was recognised just last week when Private Michelle Norris became the first ever woman to be awarded the Military Cross, one of the highest awards for exemplary gallantry against the enemy on land.

Pte Norris, from the Royal Army Medical Corps, received the accolade for her actions during an operation in Iraq last June, when she was just 19 years old.

Her vehicle came under fire during the recovery of another disabled Warrior Armoured vehicle when the commander took a potentially fatal shot to the head from a sniper.

Pte Norris climbed out of the vehicle and tended to his wounds while firing continued around her.

While, like Pte Norris, Leading Seaman Turney's bravery cannot be denied, her situation has sparked debate over whether women with children should go to war.

Vicky Tunbridge, from Wimborne, was a secretary in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) for four years during the Second World War, when she was stationed in Italy and Austria.

She said: "If I'd had a child I wouldn't want to be on the frontline. I think they could have given her something else to do. It's a job for the men really, I'm not keen on women being on the frontline.

"But I suppose if you go into it you shouldn't expect special treatment - she wanted to do the job and she was prepared for it.

"I think women being in the armed forces is just great - I would love to do it now but I'm a bit old at 82."

Mandy Castle was a Flight Lieutenant in the RAF for seven years and now works as a public relations officer for the Royal British Legion.

She said there was no reason for women to be treated differently to men.

"With the RAF we do exactly the same training, the same courses as men, sign up to the same terms and get exactly the same money.

"With the RAF I think all roles are open to women, apart from the regiment, which is the frontline role. But many of the jobs you can end up on the frontline.

"It still mystifies me that people are asking the question whether women should be treated differently. Leading Seaman Turney knew what she was getting into and she wanted to do it. There's a lot of young fathers out there as well."

Mandy added the amount of women in the armed forces, and the RAF in particular, had stayed fairly constant for the last few years.

"In the RAF it's eight per cent women and 92 per cent men," she said.

"I was in the RAF for seven years and eight per cent was the figure they always quoted. But they are supposed to be looking at making it up to 20 per cent.

"But it is seen as a traditional male role, I think because it's just such a male-dominated environment. You've got to be a certain type of person to be able to live with that."