Two female soldiers will graduate this week from Ranger School in Fort Benning, Ga., the first women to have made it through the Army’s premier leadership course and one of the most challenging and exhausting training programs in the military, Army officials said on Monday.

Their success — and the experience of 17 other women who began the course in April but have not made it that far — is expected to inform a major decision that the Army and other services must make by the end of the year: Whether to seek to continue to keep women from serving as combat infantrymen and in other military jobs that have been off-limits.

While only about 3 percent of active-duty soldiers in the Army have earned their Ranger tabs, doing so is considered an unofficial prerequisite for many infantry commands. And it is an explicit requirement for leading combat troops in the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment, the service’s premier light-infantry unit.

Completing Ranger School also can significantly enhance careers even for officers who do not serve in combat units.