cf women soldiers in the Vietnam war in the NLF, NVA and Vietcong armies.
http://teakdoor.com/arts-and-entertainment/76812-photos-the-female-soldiers-vietnam-war.html
A few thoughts about the NLF, Viet Cong & NVA photos of female ‘soldiers’. Notice the NVA ‘soldiers’ are AAA gunners? Those are troops that don’t have to move about a lot and they are deployed near a base that they are defending. Not having to hump packs & ammo greatly reduces the combat stress on the body.
Second: (and I repeat myself here) the NLF/Viet Cong are partisan militia. These are units that basically are raised and fight within their own province and are not tasked with heavy offensive operations.
Third: The women in those photos do not look like they have been “living in the field”. They look freshly scrubbed and that makes me suspect that these are propaganda photos.
Male soldiers get rotated off the line at specific time intervals because combat effectiveness for the units drop after about 30 days, depending on the intensity of operations. A major underlying cause is nagging injuries reducing individual effectiveness.
At the Naval Academy we had some very good female athletes. Almost every female plebe was in crutches within a couple weeks — and we weren’t drilling with field packs. Shin splints, hamstring pulls and other muscular-skeletal injuries due to light-frames.
The IDF does have women in combat positions, but what you’ll find is that they serve in training echelons as Instructor-Pilots, Tank Drivers & Gunners at the Armor School, etc. In essence they are a trained, ready-reserve that if needed will fight defending their home turf in a last ditch.