Earlier this month, the Secretary of Defence opened up all combat jobs to women starting later this year. One side effect of this new law is that the military fitness tests need to be redesigned so that more women can pass them.
The current training tests are designed for the “male physiology.” The new standards for 2019 will take the position into account when creating fitness tests. This could make fitness tests a little more personalized for different roles.
Under the current testing system, only about thirty women would be able to pass them. If we are opening up these positions we need to make tests that women can pass. They are no longer asked to satisfy any gender requirements; they just want to change the tests so women won;t be injured as easily.
For example, there is one test that requires an infantry soldier under 30 to be able to do 21 pull-ups, 50 sit-ups, and run a mile and a half in under 13 minutes. Another requirement under review is the one that says infantry soldiers should be able make an eight mile march carrying 55-pound rucksack in two hours.
One Colonel, Richard Kemp, says that the changes will make soldiers that are less capable. Some people serving in infantry are threatening to leave if women are allowed to join.
Surprisingly, many military organizations are against allowing women in. A survey of 54,000 Marines currently serving said the two out of three male soldiers and one out of three female soldiers are against women being allowed into all service jobs. A think tank has been researching women in combat since 2013. Their lengthy research was finished this last fall.
Ninety percent of men polled said they worried that male and female intimate relationships could become a problem.
Hopefully, we will be able to work out these details. Women who want to serve should be allowed to do so.
Featured image by DVIDSHUB via Flickr, available under Creative Commons 2.0 license.
