US Marines Test All-Male Squads Against Mixed-Gender Ones – And The Results Are Bleak

The Federalist Papers ^ | 8/7/2017

[COBOL2Java]

Actually, I think it would have been interesting to have had a third, all-female group. While I doubt it would have performed better that the all-male group, would it have been better than the mixed? It is a lost opportunity to bolster answers and perhaps raise new ones.

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[Nifster]

That would be even worse

[CyberAnt]

So, what were the results ..??

[Nifster]

Well said

[rlmorel]

Exactly so. And when women have to train far harder to overcome the effects of estrogen (and lack of testosterone) in their bodies to reach the level of an average male, when they have to stop physical training, their strength decreases at a faster rate than men’s strength does. Basically, the baseline for men is higher than the baseline for women.

[rlmorel]

Thanks, Nifster...

[dp0622]

What would be your guess? Any chance they work better as just women?

[rlmorel]

One would hope that would be the case, but they have already done this test before in various forms, which indicates they are not looking for a result to deny women combat roles, but are instead fishing for a result that allows them to give women combat roles.

But perhaps under Trump, this is different...

[rlmorel]

LOL, I am onboard with your “whining” there...

[Qiviut]

During casualty evacuation assessments, there were notable differences in execution times between all-male and gender-integrated groups, except in the case where teams conducted a casualty evacuation as a one-Marine fireman’s carry of another (in which case it was most often a male Marine who “evacuated” the casualty)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If I were a Marine in combat, I would want to be confident that ANY of my fellow Marines could evacuate me if I needed it and do it as quickly as possible. I used to work for a police department and one day, while on lunch, I was watching the newest class of police recruits do an obstacle course, part of which required carrying/dragging a 200 lb dummy for a certain distance. The guys were all able to do it without too much of a problem & most were able to actually carry the dummy; however, the women really struggled - they couldn't lift it into a carry, they were slow, they had to stop and rest, the officer running the course had to keep yelling & encouraging them, & once they actually managed to drag the dummy to the end of that part of the course, they were winded to the point of being wiped out & it definitely affected them continuing on. I wasn't surprised, but to actually see this happening (and not in any sort of a life threatening situation) was pretty disturbing.

[rlmorel]

Ugh.

[wiseprince]

Hahahahaha, his was the first thought I had. This is just nuts. You have to figure these are the butchiess women that could be found too. Physiology needs to understand that this is 2017 and a woman can do everything a man can do!

[wbarmy]

Back in the 80’s, I and a SSG were laoding a 2 1/2 ton truck with cammo bags and webbing. Big heavy bags with a bunch of metal poles. We were racing each other, one in each hand, to throw them into the truck; half macho, half trying to beat the departure time.

The rest of his squad, mostly women with a few REMFs, were struggling to carry one bag and we were helping them get them into the trucks between throws.

I have never been a supporter of women in combat units. If they want in, let them do the same PT test everyone else has to do.

[oh8eleven]

I do not “hope” to be able to put women on the front line.
Amen.

[dp0622]

Wouldn’t domestic violence be maybe 50-50 split among men and women if they were equally powerful?
Forget the weight thing too. I was a boxer at 220 lb and a 150 lb Mexican knocked me to the floor lol

[hecticskeptic]

That took the form of a year-long experiment called the Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force, in which 400 Marines — 100 of them female — trained for combat together and then undertook a simulated deployment, with every aspect of their experience measured and scrutinized…….. The Corps’ summary of the experiment concludes that combat teams were less effective when they included women. Overall, the report says, all-male teams and crews outperformed mixed-gender ones on 69% of tasks evaluated….

The article doesn’t have enough information about what all the tasks were or how the combat teams were made up. If there were 400 Marines in total and 100 of them are female, does that mean that one team had 200 males while the other had 100 males and 100 females? Doesn’t really matter…. I’m going to call BS on the results. If the tasks were serious ‘ground combat tasks’, there is no way that that all things being equal, a team made up of half women and half men would be more effective 21% of the time. That number should be 0%.

[jdsteel]

"If there’s a woman out there who can hump with an 81 mm baseplate strapped to their pack for even three miles, I’d like to meet her. She’s quite a woman...."

With the VERY small percentage of women that might be able to do that it would only be due to special training, supplements and most likely steroids. They wouldn't be able to sustain the ability over years of service.

[CyberAnt]

The other issue nobody is talking about:

It’s a well-known scientific fact; when women group together under stressful situations, they tend to regulate their menstrual cycles so that it occurs to all the females at once.

Has anybody considered what would happen if all these “mixed gender” groups are on patrol or in a foxhole together ..?? The odor would alert any enemy; and possibly any patrols with dogs (who would be especially sensitive to such odor) .. therefore giving away the group’s position.

THIS FACT ALONE SHOULD BE CONSIDERED IF YOU ARE GOING TO PUT WOMEN IN PATROL UNITS.

I am totally against this. I wouldn’t want my family member to be targeted by the enemy, just because he was told he had to patrol with women.

I’m glad the results proved my point: guys form a unit and are really much more powerful.

[COBOL2Java]

What would be your guess? Any chance they work better as just women?

A whole company of PMS-deranged women soldiers armed with some serious weaponry? That'd scare the Obama out of me! :0)

[Kaisersrsic]

Devil’s advocate here, so no need to flame. This is what I was thinking -

The mixed gender units under performed all male units in a Marine Corps with 182K on active duty. At the end of WWII, there were about 485K Marines. At what point would the availability of fit-for-service men suggest that mixed gender units would be equally effective? I don’t know the Answer, but preparation for the next war (even an unimaginable war) is what the Generals are paid to do.