Gender Equality and the Navy SEALs

The push for gender equality centers around believing that offering the same opportunities to both sexes will result in the same outcome. We, most of us anyway, know this couldn’t be further from the truth. Different factors including skill, ability, education, etc. all affect the result, and that isn’t sexism, it’s just a fact.

Beyond the questions surrounding “equality” in the regular workplace, the military, where physical skill + ability is high on the list of requirements, has been working on gender integration in recent years. The most recent result being that two women passed Army Ranger School along with 94 men. Officials have made it clear that their standards were not changed in any way. I’ll take that as true, and congratulate both the women and men who undoubtedly deserve what they worked so hard for.

“Congratulations to all of our new Rangers,” Army Secretary John McHugh said in a statement. “Each Ranger School graduate has shown the physical and mental toughness to successfully lead organizations at any level. This course has proven that every soldier, regardless of gender, can achieve his or her full potential.

As a badge for the equality movement, McHugh praised the idea that gender shouldn’t influence whether someone can be successful in an area or not. Maybe we feel that it shouldn’t, but in reality, your God-given gender will affect certain pursuits. Especially in terms of physical capability in the military, then it absolutely does. The newest announcement in the move to integrate women into the military involves allowing females into the physically demanding and elite group known as the Navy SEALs. Let’s be honest, the majority of men are not cut out for this type of training. Opening up the door to women doesn’t do much but appeal to feelings of fairness. There are males in the best shape of their lives that can’t hack the SEALs selection process. Essentially, it’s actually a clever ploy by the military leadership. In an era of inclusivity-at-any-cost, they get the “But what about the WOMEN?!?” crowd off their back, at least momentarily, knowing full well there is most likely not one female on earth that would make it through Hell Week.

Jessie Jane Duff, Gunnery Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret), appeared on CNN to discuss allowing women into the SEALs. She discussed some of the physical differences women have, like muscle mass and lung capacity, and said in part of the planned integration:

“No, I don’t think it’s a good idea. Because I don’t think that we have a combat-mission readiness need to put women in the front lines. I don’t think we’ve demonstrated that. I think this has been something that was influenced by a lot of politicians and people who wanted to get their name out their for women. But I question them. This isn’t about equality, this is about a complete physical difference. This is about biology….I would say it would be about equality if women were equally capable of doing the job.”

Captain Katie Petronio, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan with a team which worked alongside the infantry, questioned the military opening combat jobs up for women in 2013. These questions still apply today.

“Can women endure the physical and physiological rigors of sustained combat operations, and are we willing to accept the attrition and medical issues that go along with integration?”

“Five years later, I am physically not the woman I once was and my views have greatly changed on the possibility of women having successful long careers while serving in the infantry. I can say from firsthand experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, and not just emotion, that we haven’t even begun to analyze and comprehend the gender-specific medical issues and overall physical toll continuous combat operations will have on females.”

I’m wondering when the Left will ever accept that women and men are in fact different, both possessing strengths and weaknesses unique to them? This truth is impossible to change. Requirements to pass grueling military training should not be watered down in any way. If that holds, the fact is that the Left will again be disappointed, wondering why similar opportunities did not equal the same outcome. Then naturally, they’ll continue on in their push for that elusive sameness, never accepting that it doesn’t exist, and that is not only a good thing, it is a biological fact.

There is no pressing need for this type of inclusion in the military other than politics. A desire to be culturally up-to-date is not a good enough reason to set women up for failure, and place a manufactured strain on a gender divide which is complementary and naturally occurring in the first place.

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