The Marine Corps is not lowering their standards. The pull-up requirement has always been a male only requirement. Females have always had to do the Flexed arm hang for score on the PFT. This requirement has nothing to do with women getting into a combat arms MOS. The PFT is the basic physical fitness test for Marines. If anything the Marine Corps wants all Marines, male and female to have the same standards on the PFT. What is happening is they are finding out that women are failing the pull-up requirement at a high rate. All the Marine Corps is doing is holding off on requiring females to do pull-ups until they can find a good way to get them there. This has been a bone of contention in the Marine Corps for decades, every Marine needs to be held to the same standard. The question is how do we get there without lowering our standards and how do we get there without losing otherwise good female Marines who need time to be able to meet those standards. The Marine Corps will get this figured out by the middle of the year. At that time females will be doing the same exact PFT the males do. The Flexed arm hang will die the death it deserves.
Ok, you trapped in a US consulate surround by Al-Qaeda terrorists ready to burn the place down. You get a hold of Cent Com on the sat phone, there are two options, they can send a platoon of all female Marines airdropped into your position or a platoon of all male Army soldiers airdropped. They let you pick which one. Which do you pick?
I'm sure that was fine when women were not serving in combat roles, but now they soon will be. Is there another physical fitness test that female Marines must take to qualify to serve in a combat MOS?
The USMC is a great fighting organization with a proud and glorious history. Notwithstanding that I would pit any of the Army platoons in which I served and trained against any Marine infantry platoon any time anywhere. In every major war the US Army does most of the fighting, kils and captures most of the enemy, and captures most of the ground, if for no other reason then that it is the largest ground combat outfit.
In Vietnam on the DMZ I served on joint ops with the 26th Marines. They were a great outfit but they were no more effective against the tough NVA than my boys.