People advocate for equal opportunities for both men and women in various aspects of society.  Some examples are equal opportunities for both genders in jobs and equal rights for men and women. However, should this equal opportunity idea also apply to the military?  Women serving in combat roles is a widely debated topic that has gained more and more ground with women now being open to all combat roles since 2015. In 2015, When Defense Secretary Ash Carter opened all combat roles to women instead of requiring female recruits to meet the same standard as men. The military has decided to create “gender-neutral” standards in hopes more women would qualify.

The first reason that we should not incorporate women into combat roles is that women cannot match their male counterparts' physical performance. The Marine Corps September 2015 “released a study comparing the performance of gender-integrated and the male-only infantry unit in simulated combat. The all-male teams greatly outperformed the integrated teams, whether on shooting, surmounting obstacles or evacuating casualties ”(Mac Donald, Heather “Women Don’t Belong in Combat Units” Wall Street Journal  Jan 14, 2019, 1). What is the point of creating intersex infantry units when they get outperformed by an all-male team? The military is not meant to be diverse its meant to protect its homeland as well as its interests against foreign threats.

The second reason is that introducing intersex combat units impacts the combat readiness of our soldiers. A Marine Commander who served in Afghanistan recalls “how the arrival of an all-female team tasked with reaching out to local women affected discipline on his forward operating base. When four women-three service members and a translator- arrived, the post's atmosphere changed overnight from a stern businesslike place to an eighth-grade dance.”(Mac Donald, Heather  “Women Don’t Belong in Combat Units” Wall Street Journal  Jan 14, 2019, 1). As well as “Another Marine officer who was stationed on a Navy Ship after 9/11, told me that a female officer had regular trysts with an enlisted sailor in the engine room”(Mac Donald, Heather  “Women Don’t Belong in Combat Units” Wall Street Journal  Jan 14, 2019, 1). Another example is “Marine Cpl Remedios Cruz, one of the first female recruits to join the infantry, was discharged late last year after admitting to a sexual relationship with a male subordinate”((Mac Donald, Heather  “Women Don’t Belong in Combat Units” Wall Street Journal  Jan 14, 2019, 1). By introducing young full of hormones young men and women will introduce sexual liaison, rivalries, and breakups which will undermine the foundation of a united fighting force.

Ultimately, this “gender-neutral “  approach does more harm than good to the success and lethality of our Infantry Fighting Units. The Australian Defense Association says it best “The battlefield is an unforgiving environment where laws of physics and biomechanics apply without necessarily respecting gender-equity theory in its ideological or academic sense or in its civil context”.Currently, female recruits cannot meet the same physical standards as male recruits. All-male units vastly outperformed inter-sex units on any simulated combat task. If women are to join men in combat roles operational efficiency must not be hindered and women must be able to meet the same physical demands that male recruits are required to meet to enter these roles.