Comments on: Women Do Not Belong in the Infantry

By: Slovenian Guest

Slovenian Guest — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 14:22:41 +0000

Here are some more Israeli female soldiers. (It's a militaryphotos.net picture thread.)

By: Sconzey

Sconzey — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 11:47:10 +0000

Israel is an interesting example here. Israel's national service is required of both men and women; however women's service period is shorter then men's. Women make up 33% of all IDF personnel and 51% of all IDF officers. Women are constitutionally promised equal service rights and opportunities to men. At least 88% of all roles in the IDF are open to women, including the 70% female combat-ready Caracal batallion and the K9 commando Oketz unit, but women only make up 3% of the combat personnel. Related, here's a picture of an adorable Jewish girl holding [I think] an IMI Galil.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 23:08:23 +0000

I'm not sure that setting a uniform standard qualifies as easy. Also, do read the original article just past the part I excerpt.

By: Goober

Goober — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 21:57:06 +0000

This problem is easily dealt with. Set a uniform physical fitness and strength metric that all soldiers must meet, regardless of gender, and then fail them out if they don’t meet it, regardless of gender.

The greatest argument against women in infantry is that they are held to different physical standards and so therefore become less self-sufficient and more of a burden on their troop. They go for the same hike, maybe, but carry 50 pounds less gear than their male counterparts (making the males carry more to make up for her). less pull ups. Less push ups. Longer qualification times. I can understand why men would not want that allowed in their infantry company. I certainly would not. But if a woman passed all the same fitness standards that I had to, hell, I wouldn’t mind fighting with her.