Your female E-5's attitude is admirable.
As you said some female soldiers are powderpuffs and some are extreme atheletes but if they are not "soldiers" first they are no good to you and the unit.
The difference is not in performance. Men can be bad performers as well. The differences are more profound than job performance, it is about psychological and innate traits that cannot be conditioned out.
Congressmen and some DOD people have bought into the "men and women are basically the same" fallacy and the result is the co-ed combat unit.
Unfortunately the people that make the decisions on this issue do not share my opinion that a co-ed fighting force is a mistake.
And for the lurkers thinking that racial integration is the same thing as this issue...it isn't.
We agree on this one. The guys wash out for these reasons, same as the girls.
My point is, if the girl can handle the mission, groovy, let's drive on.
My unit isn't a line company; an MI company gets tossed all over the place. The girls also fill the Agent slots, and that's a big deal.
Now, every soldier irregardless of gender of job, has to pass CTT (for non-green-suit FReepers: Common Task Training), and that's MY job as an NCO to train them. if they blow it because of training, then the hit's on me. But if they start failing because of social issues, then it's their own choice, and I hang 'em outside.