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Well, I don't have a lot of experience with this, but I'll throw in my two cents. I think right now the US military has it mostly right. If you look at what women are banned from, it's the areas of the military that are the most physically demanding. What men in the infantry do, most women could not. Men can ruck for tens of miles with a pack that weighs more than half as much as they do. From personal experience, I know that most women cannot. What men in the artillery do, most women could not. Lifting shells and handling the big guns are very physically demanding jobs, and I don't think most women could do it.
There are some women that can do it, but do you really expect the US military to have separate training units for all of the women who apply, only to have 90% of them attrite because they weren't physically qualified? Think how much more money that costs than just saying across the board that women can't apply. It is unfortunate for those women who are physically capable, but it's economics. Maybe in the future the military will incorporate some sort of physical exam so that those women who wish to apply for the infantry can do so.
Someone said that women are better strategists: well, that may be true, but women can be officers. If they rise high enough, they can make strategy and policy. Someone said something about how older age means relaxed physical standards for men: so what? Most older people are in the higher ranks. For the most part they're not doing the most phyiscally demanding jobs any more. In any case, a women who can't pull a charging handle when she is 20 won't be able to pull one when she is 40. A man who is 40 may not be able to pull a charging handle, but he probably could at 20. In any case, in the Marine Corps that relaxed physical standard applies to all Marines, not just the ones in the infantry.
For myself, I have no problem serving alongside women. I don't think women should be excluded from combat or combat zones, only those MOS' where women could not handle the physical aspect of the job. If women want to get shot at, fine with me. When I went through Marine OCS, the attrition rate for males was 30-40%. For females it was around 60%. I know for a fact that the females had much lower physical standards, yet the attrition rate was still almost double that of the males. If females had the same exact physical standards as the males, there is no doubt in my mind that the female attrition rate would be over 90%.
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