Maybe 1 in 1000 women could handle the physical requirements. If they can, let them in.
Don;t lower the standards, but I think it is inevitable that even the most elite of our fighting forces are going to include women in the future. Simply not in proportion to men; look at the bell curve and there are going to be the exceptional specimens who can cut it (having had by ass kicked in Judo by a female half my size I have no doubt of this).
It is inevitable, it makes more sense for us ‘old guard’ to set the preconditions that there will be no diminution of any standard. Better to have a few in a hundred be female than to lose the eventual battle and have to change standards so that half are women,
Disclaimer- guy who tried like hell to join the service but was disqualified on grounds or really poor hearing. Just my .02
I don’t care if Chuck Norris is reincarnated as a woman, and goes on to hold the record in every drill necessary to attain Ranger status - there is still no place for them.
You want a separate team of women? Go ahead.
The job is tough enough without adding the distraction of women. It’s like asking them to put weights in their packs, or taking rounds out of their clips.
The only - the single - question that matters is:
Does the policy change enhance the ability of the team to meet their objectives?
With a female on the teams, the answer is a flat no.
Now, in espionage? I say we recruit all the females, homosexuals, lesbians, transgenders, etc that we can. Espionage is tough, dirty business, but it is in many cases an INDIVIDUAL effort.
While this sounds fine, there are a number of reasons why it won’t wash:
A) first off say .1% of women qualify, great. Is it worth accommodating the units to cater to separate gender facilities for .1% of the membership? Do you think they will be able to run unisex? I don’t.
B) There is no way the standards will hold. When 99.9% of women applicants wash out there will be a hue and cry about how the qualifying program is discriminatory and standards will drop. This has proved to be the case elsewhere (as mentioned above, firefighters and police).
C) Fraternization is bad. While the O seems hell bent on bringing back the Greek band of brothers, not enough people swing that way for it to be significant. It sure as hell is when men and women are there and in close proximity.