"We don't care what's between your legs. Pass these tests and you qualify."
It may the case that the standards are higher than necessary and should be lowered—but then why wouldn't you lower them for both men and women?
Put another way, I am wondering... if there weren't previously any problems, why wouldn't you use the old women's cutoff as the new baseline for both men and women, instead of using the men's cutoff?
Because women are a small minority (< 20%) of the US military. You might be able to argue for a lowering of the new common standard to somewhere in between the old standards.
That's actually pretty striking. Only 30% of men fail vs 84% of women. And I am assuming women probably train harder and more intentionally.
I imagine that it is the push-ups, backwards throw (which they removed), and Sprint drag carry (in that order) but would like the data.
Looking through the actual requirements, most reasonably fit young men should be able to pass without much effort (e.g., 10 pushups in 2 minutes, 2 miles in 20 minutes, plank for 75 seconds, etc.)
https://www.armycombatfitnesstest.com/calculator (It scores on the current system, but I believe it's the same if you just throw out the standing throw)
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/05/10/nearly-half-o...
It's just across the board - no single event. Even the events where you are using your own bodyweight they did worse on, so it's not just a matter of them on average being smaller.
Of course, women couldn't legally serve in combat roles at all back then, so they've still got a better shot now even if they need to meet male standards.
That may be true. However with a consistent scale for everyone, means the comrade next to you passed the same test. And those around them passed the same test. Man? Passed the test. Woman? Passed the test.
If the test isn't fair, then it should be reevaluated for all.
The counter is 'women have it easier cause its dumbed down for them', which flies in the face of all that equality stuff.
Maybe my powerlifting background is coloring my thought process but this doesn't seem crazy to me? Assuming a small ~100lb woman that's 1.4x bodyweight and that's the extreme end. I imagine for most it's closer to 1x.
I have no military and definitely no combat background so in this area I don't feel like I have the context to form much of an opinion.
Or are they limiting it to the grunts at the pointy end of the spear? Last time I checked, people seem to prefer the higher-paying, higher-employable military jobs - officers, pilots, IT/communications, engineering...