In 2009 U.S. Marines trapped Taliban fighters in a residential compound and persuaded the insurgents to allow civilians to leave. Two groups of children and what appeared to be women left and the Marines then entered the compound to find that the insurgents had escaped. The insurgents had taken advantage of Afghani cultural boundaries that prohibited male soldiers from interacting with Afghani women and had escaped wearing burkas. This incident revealed that the U.S. military lacked access to half of the population, a security risk it could not ignore. In response, it created Female Engagement Teams (FETs) that could access and build relationships with the women of Afghanistan. This paper critically evaluates the success and impact of FETs and speculates about their future in light of the recent opening of combat positions to women. It relies on internal Army studies and interviews with key officials to evaluate the program in the context of the Army’s counterinsurgency doctrine. Additionally, this paper makes use of newspaper articles and FET after action reports to determine Afghani reception to FET initiatives. FET results varied greatly by command, region, and specific teams and were used as information collection assets, a significant departure from their original intent. Although military policy forbade FETs from gathering intelligence, some commanders expected them to do just that, a decision that compromised their ability to gain the trust of Afghani women. While some Afghani women were accessed they were not equally impacted. The aim of the Army, to have a valuable presence in the women’s sphere of Afghani society, was not fully actualized. Be that as it may, the Army and some communities recognized that Afghani women have agency, showing tangible results.