Who goes into combat at the peak of their physical fitness? Perhaps you have been on ship for months waiting, or, as in Desert Storm, months waiting for forces to mass and politics to work eating MREs for months before crossing the LOD. It is rare circumstances indeed that send troops at their absolute peak of fitness.
Exactly so. And when women have to train far harder to overcome the effects of estrogen (and lack of testosterone) in their bodies to reach the level of an average male, when they have to stop physical training, their strength decreases at a faster rate than men’s strength does. Basically, the baseline for men is higher than the baseline for women.