The big take away from this is that there are actually 10 female Green Berets. I had no idea. 'Looking for a Husband, Boyfriend, Attention': Study Reveals Sexism Faced by Women in Army Special Operations Women in Army special operations face "blatant sexism," particularly among senior noncommissioned officers who say they dread the idea of working with women and would never respect a female superior, according to a lengthy internal study released by the service on Monday. "I dread the day a woman arrives on a Team and I hope I am retired by the time that happens," one noncommissioned officer, or NCO, wrote in a survey with anonymous comments that was included in the Army study. No doubt there are many law suits and courts martial in Special Op's future. I predict eventually Special Ops will be staffed like a Marvel movie.
I don't see why it needs to matter. If they have the skills and are exceptional physically, the genitals need not matter. I understand that, physically on average, a woman is less likely to be suitable, but exceptional women suited to the roles do exist.
I remember a number of female soldiers that maxed male PT standards when I was in; and that was in a signal battalion. This was of course exceptional, but no doubt sufficiently trained and conditioned females could serve just as well as a male soldier.
Maxed by womes standards or mens? I always respected the rank by I was definitely happier in all male units. Seemed there was more drama in units with females. And I was a.ways told they can do everything a man can do, but every time we went to the field and heavywork needed done women were never picked. In PLDC everyone has to carry the M60 except for the women, in airborne school you were told that you absolutely can't pass the school if you can't do pull-ups because you need to pull yourself up in the air to steer the chute, some how this did not apply to women, gravity must effect them differently. If these women passed the course without lowering standards great, but I doubt that happened. The positive of an all male unit is if they have a pregnant wife they still can get called out of country for a mission that doesn't work the same for women in the very more common true male female marriage.
Well as I said, I was surprised that there were already 10 female Green Berets. I assume that they are all exceptional. Or at least they better be.
They're just saying out loud what a whole lot of people feel but can't say publicly anymore in 2023. I'll cut right to the chase and preface this by saying some of this isn't even the women's fault, it's the mens. Not all of it, but some of it. Why would these SF dudes dread working with women? For one it's the trust issue. Yes there are a handful of elite level females out there who could make it through the SF pipeline with male standards but is the female that just arrived in your squad actually one of them? Or is she the product of a quota? Is she REALLY as capable as the rest of the boys or were her standards padded a bit in order to let her in because that's what society wants nowadays? Anyone who has actually served in the Army knows that the standards for men and women are drastically different for a valid reason and if the Army actually tried to make universal standards for both genders then the overwhelming vast majority of women would fail. Key the whole gender neutral ACFT debacle and how well that worked out. Did these 10 female Green Berets actually do everything to the actual standard or was there a female standard whether officially or unofficially? Who knows, they very well may have but thats one of the first things everybody is thinking about when a female shows up to an elite level unit like that. Now regarding female leadership. This is purely anecdotal on my part so take that how you will, but in my experience female Officers and NCO's tend to be insufferable. This I believe comes from a feeling of insecurity on their part by believing they aren't respected as leaders by default due to being female so they ramp up the attitude and assertiveness in order to prove themselves. Any criticism of them is taken as the men trying to undermine them just because they are women instead of the fact that they are doing something wrong. These aren't even my own words I've served with a handful of female Officers and befriended a few who have flat out told me that's how they feel. And in my experience it's pretty valid. Also the emotions many display are just unbecoming an Officer in the US military. In my current unit we've had a few female Officers come and go and the amount of crying they did on a routine basis was just ridiculous. Two of the female LT's cried literally every damn week, openly, and were openly mocked for it all the time by their Soldiers. Any amount of stress they encountered they would just burst out in tears instantly. One time the Company Command Team of one LT asked if I would pair up with her to try to teach her something and hopefully break through to her. Out of all the senior dudes I'm the least "mean and scary" so they hoped maybe she would be able to learn from me. I swear to God, I sat down with her at the briefing table to go over what we would be doing for our training mission that day as calm and non-threatening as possible and I got up and said any questions? Alright go grab your gear I'll meet you downstairs in 20 mins. I couldn't find her so I walk upstairs and she's in her Commanders office balling her eyes out. Her Commander then comes to my office and says thanks for trying but nevermind and cancels the training mission. We didn't even DO ANYTHING YET and I am by far the most approachable and chill of all the senior "hammers" around here. Hell even the female Company Commander we used to have would cry all the time. In my line of work when you want to advance you sit in front of board that I sit on along with the other senior "hammers" and the big Commander. This particular female CAPTAIN and Company COMMANDER goes into our board, she fails, and when told she didn't pass this time sits there and bursts into tears like she did at least once per week for something. Then gets up and quickly goes out the door crying down the hallway in front of Soldiers walking around. No we can't vote to advance you any further and give you more responsibility, you're a CAPTAIN and you break down and start CRYING every time you get stressed out and you want us to put you in charge of Soldiers LIVES? (She was an admin company commander who was trying to advance to be in charge of a unit who actually fights). Before leaving we asked if she had any questions and she asked why we keep failing her at the board, asks this inbetween breaths as shes hysterically sobbing...in a climate controlled building in peacetime in America...Then we tell her and that's when she gets up and runs out crying even harder. I mean seriously what the ****. Almost all of them act like that, I've literally never served with a female Officer who I haven't caught crying at work. At least one of them had the dignity to do it alone in her office when nobody was around unlike the rest of them who did it in front of everybody without shame. Not all female Soldiers are bad though, in my experience the lower enlisted ones are just fine, the NCO's tend to be hit or miss like their male counterparts. But when they are good they are damn good. I'm actually right now fighting to swap a male 1SG out with a female E-7 who is about to be promoted because shes the best damn mechanic NCO i've ever seen and the male NCO sucks in comparison. She's also not exactly a feminine woman though shes a hardcore bourbon drinking open butch lesbian with tattoos everywhere who would probably kick most of her Soldiers ass but still. She puts everyone else to shame at what she does and I want her in charge of that section. Again, not ALL of the female Officers are like that, I personally have known 2 who are certified badasses just as capable as the rest of us and are both good friends of mine. But the majority of the ones I've served with act like the above. Then you couple all of that with the SHARP and EO thing and the fact that adding females to a male dominated profession adds a weird dynamic and honestly they just become more hassle than they're worth wanting around. Just last week one of my NCO's was telling me about the stress he's having to go through with his Soldiers because some new female private showed up and apparently 3 of the dudes got into a fist fight over her after work lol. It happens all the time and it causes division within the ranks. No fault of the female, shes just trying to do her job, but that's how the real world works. So when you take all of that into account and remove all emotion, all "fairness", all political correctness, and ask military leadership if they want females in their ranks the honest answer would be no from most of them and they'll say that if asked anonymously. They can't actually say that publicly though so they have to beat around the bush or be "correct" and say "we want whoever is qualified regardless". I'll say it I don't care, oftentimes through no fault of their own females are just more trouble than they are worth by just being there surrounded by a whole bunch of college aged military dudes who act like college aged dudes. I was in all male units for the first part of my career and I will openly say that yes it was a whole lot easier to deal with from a disciplinary, administrative, and logistical standpoint.
If you think that there are not going to be multiple issues that rise when an ODA of 11 males and 1 female deploy somewhere for 6 months or so then you are not living in real world. Also women are going to have a much much harder time keeping up with the men once they start getting wear and tear on their bodies and even just when op temp or location has then not being able to spend as much time on fitness. Several studies have shown that.
Well that probably has more to do with the Army make pt standards being rather easy. And it is definitely not a good indicator of the type of fitness actually need in SOF.
Interested in links for the studies. But on the other aspect, it's a different world today for employment in general. In a work setting, people need to be professional and treat women as peers/subordinates/superiors rather than conquests. Relationships could happen, of course, like any workplace, but the default needs to be to treat them as a fellow soldier and to tread with more caution when it comes to romantic gestures than one would at, say, a bar.
It's not just the physical abilities. My first assignment as a young 2LT was XO and later Commander of a Basic Training Company. I had 220 recruits and about fifteen cadre, including Drill Sergeants. All were male except for four females. One female was my Armorer. She was single and more often pregnant than not. She had an abortion, a miscarriage and carried to term once. When she gave birth there were complications. The baby was ok, but mom was sent on convalescent leave, after signing the papers to put the baby up for adoption. When she got back, she found that her boss, my Supply Sergeant (and her husband), had adopted the baby. Mom wanted her baby back. There were endless absences by them both as they went downtown to see lawyers. The Armorer started asking the 1SGT for rides and all of a sudden they were absent on long lunches and more. Next thing you know the Supply Sergeant's husband is in my office wanting me to arrest my 1SGT. Then the First Sergeant's 16 year old daughter comes into the Orderly Room to announce she's pregnant to pay her dad back for screwing the Supply Sergeant. At that point I I pulled a routine inventory check and found a LOT of stuff missing. I relieve the Supply Sergeant on the spot. The 1SGT vows to make up the shortages by trading with other companies... something done routinely. He asks that if he does that, I not bring charges up on the Supply Sergeant. He makes up the shortages. Well, the new Supply Sergeant tells me its not stuff that was "traded", it was all BORROWED. Bottom line, I have to relieve the 1SGT... a close friend, ending his career. What a mess. Well that was the first two women in the unit. Numbers three and four were mail clerks who actually belonged to Battalion, but worked in my area because I had the room. .Number three was a good soldier, who had a fiance stationed overseas. She talked with him weekly and one night had trouble getting her roommate off the phone. They argued. The roommate's boyfriend, on the line, drove over and shot my soldier. The toughest thing I ever did was handling her parents as they came to escort their daughter's body home. Number four married her boyfriend and asked me to give her away at her wedding. Within months the marriage was a disaster, her hubby was in the hospital from the attack of her new boyfriend, and I was sending her to Korea as fast as I could. So when you talk about the effects of women in the Army... its not just about PT.
This is the one I could remember of the top of my head. https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/ne...a monthslong,than their all-male counterparts. It really has nothing to do with treating them like conquests. It’s the fact that they are human and when you mix human makes and females especially for long periods and in stressful environments they are going to start screwing. And the women are just as guilty of it as the men.
I guess women really are the same as male troops. Army Reveals It Fired Female Commander in Troubled Brigade After Claims of Sexual Assaults on Male Soldiers The former commander faced allegations of assaulting at least two male subordinates and harassing several others, with some of those incidents allegedly tied to alcohol abuse, according to one source with direct knowledge of the situation. One of those instances allegedly involved forcefully kissing one of the males, and grabbing another below the belt without his consent.
