are made for it.are made for it.Actually, no women are made for it. Some women at the top end of the bell curve overlap where a lot of men are and can pass a test. Even a month of training. Or two.
But it is like trying to recruit old guys in the interest of fairness. I went to Afghanistan at 49. I rarely got off the FOB because no one WANTED me to go off the FOB with them.
I could do pretty good on a fitness test. I could stand up to combat duty for 4, 6 hours...maybe more, in a pinch. But I could not have done what the 20 year old guys were doing - going 18 hours, then the next day, then the next, and doing it for a year.
I suppose 1% of guys in the 50s could handle being a ground combat troop, which is quite different from deploying to a combat zone in a supporting role. But why would you waste time looking for them, when 70% of guys in their 20s can be trained to handle the work?
And if you seek out women instead of old guys, you add sex to the battlefield - NOT a good idea. But the Gods of the Copybook Headings will need to teach America the lesson...