".... but why does someone working on cyberlogistics have to even take the same test? We should be trying to support people on a fitness journey.”
Said Emma Moore, a research associate for the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security, quoted in "Where Fitness Is the Job, Army Struggles to Be a Fair Boss With Female Troops/As the Army revises its physical test and otherwise rethinks fitness, it faces difficult questions: Do current requirements penalize women? Do they overshadow expertise and intellectual preparation?" (NYT).
The new 120-minute test, known as the Army Combat Fitness Test, features six events that cover speed, endurance and strength. The standards to pass are identical for men and women, and for all ages. A soldier must achieve 360 points out of a maximum 600 to pass, and greater scores have historically greatly increased chances for promotion.....
Women are expected to weigh less than men... but need to gain quite a bit of muscle weight to do the heavy dead-lift that the new test requires.... “Fitness in the Army is so integral to your job,” said Captain Griest, adding that she wrote her piece* because “women in combat arms are pretty underrepresented.” She wanted to give them a voice.
The Army needs to determine “what is needed on a battlefield and just hold everyone to that standard,” she said. “For instance, I want a soldier to be able to pull their body over an obstacle in the infantry.”
She said she learned to dead-lift far more weight than she ever imagined she could when properly coached. “I have heard people criticize me and say I have internalized misogyny,” she said. “I think I have a sense of internalized empowerment.”
The Army is expected to announce changes to the test this month....
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* Here's Griest's piece: "WITH EQUAL OPPORTUNITY COMES EQUAL RESPONSIBILITY: LOWERING FITNESS STANDARDS TO ACCOMMODATE WOMEN WILL HURT THE ARMY—AND WOMEN" (Modern War Institute).