It’s curious to me. I have had this discussion with my husband numerous times. He was infantry when I met him. I was an equipment operator. Really, I dug holes. From the week I met him, we had talks about why women can’t be in the same positions as men.
The thing that a lot of people do is immediately think that means standards will be lowered. I don’t believe in that part at all. Standards are standards. I don’t agree that the general population of the Military has separate standards for males and females. I pushed and pushed until I could meet the male standards. I never wanted to be looked at differently.
That has always been my biggest question about why. If a woman can meet the standards, the non-gender specific standards, why can they not have the opportunity? I know that there will be plenty of women that try and fail, probably at a higher rate than the male applicants. But, does that mean they shouldn’t have the opportunity just as all the males that have a good chance of failing as well.
The Ranger school started with 400 members. 19 were females. 94 males made it through and 2 females. 24% male graduating rate, 10% female graduating rate.
I suppose it is a start. The women that graduated even knew they were doing it for future generations, showing it was possible and they expected to be treated just as everyone else.
One Day!
Either way, though. Congratulations to those two women that did make it through – and to the 94 men that did. It is an honor for anyone to make it through those schools no matter what they go on to do with the rest of their careers.