I think this is a good teaching moment to talk about "is it lowering standards or is just doing it differently?" It's possible that some women can not carry as much weight as some men, but how often is it necessary to carry that weight? Can it be handled in a different way? They are problem solvers after all, solve the problem. Must they build women's quarters? How often are they in an area long enough to have to build quarters - it seems to me that a different bush to go behind can be "quarters." Etc etc. I know any women who are going to try to go through Ranger or Seal training are not going to be prissy about their environment or expect any leniency from the guys. the same arguments have been thrown up when Harry Truman said integrate the troops and the answer was "white soldiers will not take orders from 'Negro' soldiers." Well, look how that turned out. Then it was men will not take orders from women officers, well, that seems to not be a problem, she is not a woman, she is whatever insignia is on her uniform. Then is was "we can't have gays in the units, it will create all kinds of disruption!" Except that Denmark had been integrated gays into their units for 20 yrs and did not have a problem. Neither have we, except from the haters that create the disruptions, not the Blacks, or the women, or the gays!
I recall when working for the Dept of Army in the 80s there was a typical comment made by a Congressman that he was concerned if women were in combat, or were fighter pilots, etc - as tho women had never been in combat - that men would put themselves in danger to assist a woman. A woman who was a helicopter pilot in Nicaragua - remember our "fight" with N during the Reagan years that turned out to be Oliver North's war of trading munitions/cash for hostages? - anyway, she trained other pilots, but was not supposed to be "in combat." She responded to a reporter's relaying the Congressman's comment, "I've found that if my copter went down, the guys would be crawling over me to get out of it, not helping me out." When I talked to the enlisted soldiers that I worked with about it their comment was that "everyone becomes a part of the team and is not thought of as men and women."
I have been astonished at how backward present day military behaviors seem to be when thinking of the progress I thought was being made in the 80s and 90s. One of my first tasks was to train everybody at Ft Dix, civilian and military in Prevention of Sexual Harassment. Now, there were some hard heads who argued in classes that they were being picked on, and they were just teasing, etc. etc. but the Command was solidly behind gender equality and punishing sexual harassment and everybody knew it. Since that was 20 and 30 years ago, the new officer corps would all be trained in those behaviors and should have enough experience with women in the corps that they should have acclimated to the environment and behaving themselves.
Of course, the most horrendous of the sexual harassment cases in the last 15 yrs seem to have come out of the Navy and Air Force and I'm not sure they were as diligent in their training as the Army was, and they may have given it up altogether in the 21st century.
I have a feeling Barb, that there is a little bit of obfuscation on both sides of the reports we have heard about these two women and the men they trained with. We really do need to read/hear many different viewpoints and come to our own conclusions about what is "truth", as I always advised my students about the world of the press and especially when we are hearing about anything that is politic.
Jean
