As a guy who actually served in a combat unit with women, my opinion is likely to be unpopular.
Should women be allowed to serve in combat units? Definitely.
Do I actually want them to serve in combat units? Hell no.
Men and women have different biologies. I'm no doctor but from what we were told some of the difference lies in fat layer (Men have a bigger fat layer in proportion to their body). Hence women have to rest more and can't carry around big weights. You can see how that might be a problem - there are tasks that a unit has to complete, and if the women are sleeping or unable/prohibited to help, then it falls to the men to finish their own portions of the task as well as picking up the slack for the women. Under normal circumstances you would be carrying somewhere around 10-50kg, women would be carrying 10-20kg. In combat if the soldier next to you is wounded you are expected to carry him out of danger along with his and your equipment. How do you expect a woman to perform such a feat in combat if she's never trained to do that to begin with and in fact prohibited from doing that? How come women that serve in the same unit have to do 50 push ups instead of 70, and come 3 minutes late on 2km run? Either you care about their health and leave them out of combat units, or you apply the same standards.
Then there's the problem with logistics, women need their own separate bathroom, their own separate tent. Instead of 100 men using 2 bathrooms, it's 90 men using 1 bathroom and 10 women using 1 bathroom, imagine the lines.
When we started there were 90 men and 10 women. A year later there were 60 men and 3 women (everyone's alive, they just dropped out). 33% dropout rate for men, 70% dropout rate for women. That's because the men were sent to the unit, the women volunteered. Men had no expectations and hopes, no point to prove. Women were idealists and when those ideas crashed against harsh reality those ideas disappeared.
A combat unit isn't a picnic. After 4 months of training I had both my legs broken. After 7 weeks of recuperating I came back, because I knew that if I wouldn't my brothers in arms would have to pick up the slack - by going away (to heal) I actively made their lives harder. You don't go into a combat unit to prove "men and women are equal", you go because someone has to. You put your life in danger so that the general population would be safe.
If that's your reasoning and you are ready to put in the same effort as everybody else, knowing full well that you're risking your health and your very life, then you're welcome no matter your gender.
Otherwise do everyone a favour and prove your points elsewhere.
Should women be allowed to serve in combat units? Definitely.
Do I actually want them to serve in combat units? Hell no.
Men and women have different biologies. I'm no doctor but from what we were told some of the difference lies in fat layer (Men have a bigger fat layer in proportion to their body). Hence women have to rest more and can't carry around big weights. You can see how that might be a problem - there are tasks that a unit has to complete, and if the women are sleeping or unable/prohibited to help, then it falls to the men to finish their own portions of the task as well as picking up the slack for the women. Under normal circumstances you would be carrying somewhere around 10-50kg, women would be carrying 10-20kg. In combat if the soldier next to you is wounded you are expected to carry him out of danger along with his and your equipment. How do you expect a woman to perform such a feat in combat if she's never trained to do that to begin with and in fact prohibited from doing that? How come women that serve in the same unit have to do 50 push ups instead of 70, and come 3 minutes late on 2km run? Either you care about their health and leave them out of combat units, or you apply the same standards.
Then there's the problem with logistics, women need their own separate bathroom, their own separate tent. Instead of 100 men using 2 bathrooms, it's 90 men using 1 bathroom and 10 women using 1 bathroom, imagine the lines.
When we started there were 90 men and 10 women. A year later there were 60 men and 3 women (everyone's alive, they just dropped out). 33% dropout rate for men, 70% dropout rate for women. That's because the men were sent to the unit, the women volunteered. Men had no expectations and hopes, no point to prove. Women were idealists and when those ideas crashed against harsh reality those ideas disappeared.
A combat unit isn't a picnic. After 4 months of training I had both my legs broken. After 7 weeks of recuperating I came back, because I knew that if I wouldn't my brothers in arms would have to pick up the slack - by going away (to heal) I actively made their lives harder. You don't go into a combat unit to prove "men and women are equal", you go because someone has to. You put your life in danger so that the general population would be safe.
If that's your reasoning and you are ready to put in the same effort as everybody else, knowing full well that you're risking your health and your very life, then you're welcome no matter your gender.
Otherwise do everyone a favour and prove your points elsewhere.
