Four female service members filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday seeking to overturn the Pentagon’s exclusion of women from many combat roles, arguing that the restrictions are unconstitutional and have hindered their careers.

The plaintiffs have all served in Iraq or Afghanistan and each performed dangerous combat-related missions. Two were awarded Purple Hearts — a combat decoration — after they were wounded on the battlefield.

“The shrapnel that tore through the vehicle that day didn’t stop because I’m a female,” Army Staff Sgt. Jennifer Hunt, who was injured in Iraq by a roadside bomb while she was riding in a Humvee, said in a telephone interview. She said the Pentagon’s combat-exclusion policy assumes that women are less capable than men, “which is, I think, one of the biggest errors the military can make.”

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco against Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, is the latest legal attempt to force the Pentagon to lift its long-standing ban on women serving in most ground combat units. In May, two female Army reservists filed a similar suit in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.