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Females To be allowed into front line combat roles

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This will sit well amongst the equal ops campaigners, politicians will love it and all will be fine and dandy until something horrible happens to a young lady or ladies. Cooheeds few words may be quite prophetic.

Controversial question and an old chestnut on here but, if all service personal can now deploy to the front line do all service personal have to reach the same levels of fitness???
 
Tin basher said:
This will sit well amongst the equal ops campaigners, politicians will love it and all will be fine and dandy until something horrible happens to a young lady or ladies. Cooheeds few words may be quite prophetic.

Controversial question and an old chestnut on here but, if all service personal can now deploy to the front line do all service personal have to reach the same levels of fitness???
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They said on the news tonight that the women would have to reach the same standards of fitness as the men (carry a 25Kg pack 8 miles in 2 hours was mentioned). However what I didn't hear mentioned was how they are going to get around the laws on indirect discrimination. Indirect discrimination is where you set a standard that is clearly more likely to be achieved by one group over another. (the minimum height was, IIRC, one of the first tests to fall foul of that law - setting a minimum height that women were unlikely to reach was ruled discriminatory).

So, standby for a test case that claims the fitness test is discriminatory because women are less likely to pass it...... I suspect some of the legal sharks are already preparing cases.....
 
I'm sure there are many ladies who can do the job out there. And hats off to them. The problem comes when they get caught by the nutters? If you can't drive a car or show your face in public as a lady, what on earth are they going to think/do when she gets caught with a gun pointing it at taliboy!
 
There ain't half some closet sexists on here.
Give 'em a chance to prove their metal and if it don't work then close it down. I have to say that I've known quite a few females in service who I'd rather have alongside me over some rather poor males, and although that's in relation to an engineering environment I dare say that there are females who would prove themselves to be better than some males in a frontline blood and guts environment too.
 
Oldstacker said:
They said on the news tonight that the women would have to reach the same standards of fitness as the men (carry a 25Kg pack 8 miles in 2 hours was mentioned). However what I didn't hear mentioned was how they are going to get around the laws on indirect discrimination. Indirect discrimination is where you set a standard that is clearly more likely to be achieved by one group over another. (the minimum height was, IIRC, one of the first tests to fall foul of that law - setting a minimum height that women were unlikely to reach was ruled discriminatory).

So, standby for a test case that claims the fitness test is discriminatory because women are less likely to pass it...... I suspect some of the legal sharks are already preparing cases.....
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If the criterion can be justified then the standard can set, may be subject to challenge in the courts however if the arguments are reasonable it can stand.

The old height requirements for cops and guardsmen could never be objectively justified so we're bound to fail.

In an extreme example requiring a driver to be able to see discriminates against blind people, any challenge just would get very far.

Back on topic good luck to them, although I worry what the public reaction will be if one of our ladies gets captured.

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They'll be top of the IS/Al-Qaeda list to be captured.
The terrorists will have a field day with videos of those they may capture.
 
The IDF have had women in the infantry for years (the Caracal battalion for example), and they see as much, if not more 'action' than our guys. In fact, over 500 female soldiers have been killed in the IDF since 1962. Not even going into the role of Women in the WW2 Soviet military.

If they can meet the same standards as the blokes, there's no issue with it to my mind, even the Army admits only 5% of it's current female population are likely to meet the arduous physical standards anyway.

What will be an issue, is the justifiable fear that standards will be lowered to meet some sort of 'female' quota, which does worry me slightly.

Equality means just that, if you can meet the existing standards, then simply having been born a woman should not be a barrier to being an infantry soldier, IMHO.
 
Like others have said, give them a chance. However as soon as the first casualty occurs due to a female being physically incapable of performing a task, then Germain Greer and the rest of the burn the bra brigade should be lined up in front of the media to explain if they are satisfied with their life's work.
 
Having travelled a bit, I have come across the ladies of the IDF.

they can do the job no probs.

as with guys it's down to physical attributes, strength and ability.

see a few ladies on a nearby estate that are scary enough without military training 😀
 
It doesn't help females in the mil when the supporting film clip shown by Sky shows some army female SNCOs that look so big I would put good money on them not being able to pass he current fitness test. I has always pained me that some get the chop for failing the test whilst others clearly seem get away with it, I include all three services in that. I'd be surprised I'm a good lawyer hasn't got involved with such a case since it came in. Back on subject. Good luck to them if they fairly meet the criteria and obviously that criteria has to be to meet the task whatever sex.
 
Not for me but..............

Not for me but..............

As long as they physically and mentally robust enough to do the exact same job as they guys, why not? But it must be exactly the same standards. Any ladies that can do that good on you, I am not convinced there will be that many takers though.
 
personally I don't care weather you male, female, green,blue or pink with yellow spots on if you want to serve the country in combat role fair play to you.

I used to be on a deployable unit prior to this and some of the girls there where physically fitter than some of the lads and could do the job a lot better as well.
 
Females are already on the front line as medics - what difference does it make if they are now there in a combat role? If they are capable of doing so good luck to them. Enemy bullets can't differentiate between sexes any more than any of those we would currently be fighting on the ground give a toss about the Geneva Convention (i.e if they captured a female medic they wouldn't be treat any different) so good luck to those physically and mentally capable females who may well now be given the chance to fulfil a role in which they have always wanted to.
 
RAF Bird said:
Females are already on the front line as medics - what difference does it make if they are now there in a combat role? If they are capable of doing so good luck to them. Enemy bullets can't differentiate between sexes any more than any of those we would currently be fighting on the ground give a toss about the Geneva Convention (i.e if they captured a female medic they wouldn't be treat any different) so good luck to those physically and mentally capable females who may well now be given the chance to fulfil a role in which they have always wanted to.
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It's not about whether a bullet can differentiate between the sexes! There is a vast difference between a medic role and a combat role, virtually every lifer I've met who was in a infantry role is completely knackered now. Its not just combat its the numerous back-to-back courses, exercises and deployments. I can see a few progressing, but I can't see many doing 20 years+
 
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