This week, the Pentagon ordered the disposal of low physical fitness standards for women in combat units, a step that is likely to hinder the employment of women in particularly dangerous military jobs.
commander Written by Beit Higseth, Minister of Defense, on Sunday and announced on Monday, imposed all fitness requirements for combat arms sites – units that are likely to see a major fight in wartime – Be “neutral sexual”, “ Who is likely to significantly reduce the number of women who meet the requirements. The matter directs the military leadership to implement new fitness standards by the end of October.
American army Discuss The issue of how Women’s fitness to some extent In the test to determine its position in combat functions that require physically and develop in leadership roles.
After years of internal deliberations on new annual fitness tests, The army reduced the standards of grades For women and older service members in 2022. A study conducted by Rand Research Corporation found this year. Women and the older forces It failed in the new test at much higher rates than men and younger forces.
The other branches of the army were also the different fitness tests for men and women. For example, and Marines have a strength test for all recruitsMen must complete three withdrawals or 34 payments in less than two minutes. Women must complete one or 15 payment processes in the same time frame.
In a statement accompanying the matter, Mr. Higseth said, these sex standards will remain in some military jobs. But he said that women in combat units should not be allowed if they could not meet the same fitness standards as men.
Mr. Higseth has already opposed the inclusion of women in combat functions such as pedestrians, artillery, tank crews and special forces, and writing in a recent book “Women cannot meet the same standards as men.” he It later retreated from this situationDecember, “If we have the right standard and women meet this standard, Roger, let’s go.”
The struggle for fitness tests began after the army removed some of the recent barriers separating the sexes in the armed forces, Opening all the women’s combat jobs in 2015.
It also prompted women to Open a new floor And progress in Elite fighting roleslike Infantry officer and special forcesQuestions have arisen whether women should be held according to various fitness standards to ensure access to roles. The most elite jobs, such as Rangers Army and Marine seals, Equal criteria have always been imposed for men and women.
Early and limited to the new army fitness test, 65 percent of a small group of women failed, while 10 percent of men did. The independent review by Rand achieved similar results: nearly half of the army recruited in the army failed, while less than 10 percent of their male counterparts failed.
Major Christine Grest, the first infantry officer in the army and one of the first two women graduating from the school goalkeeper, An article of opinion It was published in 2021 by the Modern War Institute in West Point, which called for the standards of neutral fitness testing. She said that the low criteria for women “enhance the belief that women cannot perform the same job as men, which makes it difficult for women to gain the confidence and confidence of their teammates.”
