I was on the North Cascade
Mountain Climbing rescue team. We had one woman in the team. A fine lady and a good medic. But when it came to doing hard physical rescues on the major peaks in the North Cascades National Park, she just didn't make it. The men had to make concessions (Carry her supplies, etc.) She never helped to carry a stokes litter over rugged terrain, because she didn't have the muscle mass. We men resented the fact that she made more work for us when she came along.
I watched a special on high school women in sports. They stated that 75% of all high school women suffer major knee injuries playing basketball and soccer if they play for three years or longer. It seems women just don't have the muscle mass to keep the ligaments and tendons in place when doing a lot of running, stopping, going, jumping, and twisting. That compared to 10% of all the men in participating in High School sports of soccer and basketball. 80% or the women playing professional basketball have had some sort of knee or ankle surgery.
Women are just as brave and logical under stressful situations as men but its the physical thing (muscle mass) that prevents most women, not all, from being capable of infantry duty.
Keith
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