The US Marines -all-male squads against mixed-gender - and the results were pretty bleak

[packman]

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All branches of the military are facing a January 1, 2016, deadline to open all combat roles to women. The Marine Corps is using this experiment to decide whether to request exceptions to that mandate. The Corps’ summary of the experiment, posted online today by NPR, concludes that combat teams were less effective when they included women.

Overall, the report says, all-male teams and crews outperformed mixed-gender ones on 93 out of 134 tasks evaluated. All-male teams were universally faster “in each tactical movement.” On “lethality,” the report says:


All-male 0311 (rifleman) infantry squads had better accuracy compared to gender-integrated squads. There was a notable difference between genders for every individual weapons system (i.e. M4, M27, and M203) within the 0311 squads, except for the probability of hit & near miss with the M4.

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. During casualty evacuation assessments, there were notable differences in execution times between all-male and gender-integrated groups, except in the case where teams conducted a casualty evacuation as a one-Marine fireman’s carry of another (in which case it was most often a male Marine who “evacuated” the casualty)

The report also says that female Marines had higher rates of injury throughout the experiment.

https://qz.com/499618/the-us-marines-tested-all-male-squads-against-mixed-gender-ones-and-the-men-came-out-ahead/

[Not Ruth]

1. Better accuracy compared to gender-integrated squads makes no sense

It is not a strength dependent activity. Makes me question the entire experiment.

[hack89]

4. It is if you have to maneuver and fire like you do in combat.

I don't think they are talking about rifle range shooting. I think they were testing combat accuracy - which means running around carrying heavy loads as you maneuver to engage and defeat an enemy.

[SFnomad]

2. The article is nearly 2 years old and the integration deadline passed over 18 months ago ...

wouldn't an article on what has happened to effectiveness, readiness and morale be more appropriate?

[SharonClark]

3. I have to wonder what the OP writer's point is to promote this dated article