(no subject)

[winterbadger]

An excellent piece in Foreign Affairs on the indefensibility of maintaining a combat exclusion for women in the armed services.

Comments

[rubicat.livejournal.com]

One of the things that has always baffled me is the notion of gender for these sort of roles. The firefighter test, for example. Anyone - regardless of gender - should be able to haul a body down a flight of stairs and away from a burning building, right? So what would it matter whether that person is tall, short, male, or female? As long as the mechanics work, doesn't matter.

Same for combat. If a woman can pass the same test as a man, then why the hell not....

Needless to say, I do NOT agree with versioning tests to accommodate gender and ability, for these same reasons. But I think this is a universal perspective.