Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

The issue of women in the military immediately goes to how many push-ups a female can do verses a male, which is a specious argument because if physical prowess is truly essential to the functioning of a soldier, the defining factor between success & failure in a mission, then we have technology & pharmacology to improve that for both sexes. But soldiers in the military aren't on forced regimes of steroids & amphetamines, so that's not the reason. No, the resistance to women in the military is almost entirely conservative reticence based on custom, tradition, and the ritual role of women in society.

We all know the whole “hiking 10 days with an 80-pound pack on your back” argument is a debating trick used to obscure the real compromise. Women have been in the military for decades now and we know what the problem is, however, the real issue crashes up against both political correctness & Protestant sensibilities: namely that 11% of all female soldiers have unplanned pregnancies at any one time, and the number of women who get pregnant during enlistment is over 20%. Plus, almost half of women leave the military before their enlistment is over. The problem, if it really is one, isn't how much a gal can carry on her back, the problem is laying on it.