Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth appears to have been vindicated in his concerns about women in combat and lowered standards between men and women in uniform by a previous study conducted by the U.S. Marine Corps in 2015.
During his Senate confirmation hearings earlier this week, the former Fox News star and combat veteran was widely criticized — mostly by female Democratic senators — for his previous claims that women should not be broadly offered combat roles due to average differences in size, strength, capabilities, and differing physical standards for male and female troops.
“We have hundreds — hundreds — of women who are currently in the infantry,” New York Democratic Sen. Kristin Gillibrand, who has zero military experience, lectured during the hearing. “Lethal members of our military serving in the infantry.
“You degrade them. You say, ‘We need moms but not in the military, especially in combat units,’” she continued.
However, according to a 2015 NPR report, a year-long study by the Marine Corps found that “all-male squads performed better than mixed groups in 69 percent of the tasks evaluated.”
“The Marines created a battalion of 100 female and 300 male volunteers. During the past year, they trained in North Carolina and California, taking part in realistic combat exercises,” NPR’s Tom Bowman reported.
“All-male squads, the study found, performed better than mixed-gender units across the board. The males were more accurate hitting targets, faster at climbing over obstacles, better at avoiding injuries,” the report noted further, adding:
- “All male squads … were faster than the gender-integrated squads in each tactical movement. The differences were more pronounced in infantry crew-served weapons specialties that carried the assault load plus the additional weight of crew-served weapons and ammunition.”
- “All-male squads, teams and crews and gender-integrated squads, teams, and crews had a noticeable difference in their performance of the basic combat tasks of negotiating obstacles and evacuating casualties. For example, when negotiating the wall obstacle, male Marines threw their packs to the top of the wall, whereas female Marines required regular assistance in getting their packs to the top.”
- “Anaerobic Power: Females possessed 15% less power than males; the female top 25th percentile overlaps with the bottom 25th percentile for males.
- “Aerobic Capacity: Females had 10% lower capacity; the female top 10th percentile overlaps with the bottom 50th percentile of males.”
For his part, Hegseth weathered the criticisms well and, according to several observers, managed to deftly avoid angry confrontations while handling outbursts from Democratic senators with aplomb.
What’s more, Hegseth’s performance managed to win over an initially skeptical female GOP senator, Joni Ernst of Iowa, herself a combat veteran, who declared after the hearings she’d be casting a vote for him.
During an interview on an Iowa radio station, Ernst said Hegseth adequately answered all her questions during his confirmation hearing before the Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.
“He pointed out the woke issues at the Pentagon and I think we’re at a point where now we can start moving forward. People know where he stands on these issues. I will be supporting President Trump’s pick for secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth,” Ernst said.
After voicing concerns about Hegseth’s previous remarks that women shouldn’t be allowed to participate in combat and multiple claims of sexual misconduct, Ernst, who is also sexual assault survivor, was regarded as a crucial vote.
At his confirmation hearing, Hegseth walked back his past remarks on women in the military, telling Ernst that “women will have access to ground combat roles.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune recently told President-elect Donald Trump in a private meeting that he believes Hegseth has the votes to be confirmed as Secretary of Defense, CBS News reported.
