A U.S. Marine recruit with an M-16A2 rifle during training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot
The US Department of Defense will conduct a six-month review of the presence of women in ground combat roles, to assess what it calls the military “effectiveness” of integrating several thousand female soldiers and marines into infantry, armor and artillery.
The Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel, Anthony Tatawrote last month, in a memo seen by her, that the Pentagon will conduct an assessment with the aim of determining the “operational effectiveness of ground combat units, ten years after the Department lifted all remaining restrictions on the presence of women in combat roles”.
Tata asked Army and Marine officials to provide data on the degree of readiness, training, performancecasualties and command environment of ground combat units and personnel.
The memo states that the data must include “all metrics available that describe the individual’s readiness and mobilization capacity, including physical, medical and other fitness-related measures for active service.”
The seven-page document also requests access to all studies and internal investigations that are not available to the public on “the integration of women in combat roles”.
In statements sent to NPR, the Pentagon spokeswoman, Kingsley Wilsonadded that the study serves to “ensure standards are met and that the United Statess maintain the most lethal armed forces in the world“.
“OOur requirements for combat roles will be eliteuniforms and gender-neutralbecause the weight of a backpack or a person doesn’t care about the gender of the person carrying it. Under the leadership of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, the War Department will not lower standards to meet quotas or an ideological agenda — this is just common sense,” says the note sent by Wilson.
Pete HegsethArmy National Guard veteran with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, always opposed the presence of women in ground combat units, a position he maintained as a Fox News commentator and author.
“I say it bluntly: we shouldn’t have women in combat roles. It didn’t make us more effective. It didn’t make us more lethal. It made the fight more complicated,” he said in a podcast hosted by Shawn Ryan in November 2024.
However, last year moderated its positionstating that women can serve in combat roles as long as they meet the same criteria required of men.
In a September speech before admirals and generals at Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia, Hegseth announced that women will have to fulfill “the higher male standard”.
“Any situation in which tried and tested physical standards have been changed, especially since 2015, when combat criteria changed to allow women to qualify, should return to the original default”.
However, did not say that it would ban women to perform ground combat functions.
“In any role that requires physical strength in combat, the criteria must be elevated and gender-neutral“, defended Hegseth.
“If women can do it, great. If they can’t, that’s what it is. If that means that no women qualify for certain roless of combat, so be it. That’s not the goal, but This could be the consequence”.
Women currently in ground combat units
Of all the soldiers who serve in Army combat units, women represent a small fraction: about 3,800 They serve in infantry, armor and artillery.
Among them are more than 150 who completed the demanding training of the Rangers. Only a very small number, about 10, completed training Green BeretsUS Special Forces.
In the Fuzileiros, there are currently around 700 women in ground combat roles, in which must meet the same requirements than their male counterparts.
Ellen Haringsenior researcher at Women in International Security, West Point graduate and retired Army colonel with 30 years of service, downplayed the Pentagon reviewconsidering it a way to keep women away from ground combat roles.
“That’s exactly what Hegseth always said“, he stated. “He is against women in combat and will drive them away. It will be an attempt to prove that women do not belong in these roles.”
Chris Fuhralso a West Point graduate who worked on gender integration at the Army Forces Command in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, said that an Army study between 2018 and 2023 concluded that women performed well in ground combat units and, in some cases, with better results than men.
For Fuhr, the assessment of the effectiveness of women in combat now announced by the Pentagon is “a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist”.
