Assessment of DOD Tasker to “Review” Women in Combat Arms
“Review of the Operational Effectiveness of Army and Marine Corps Ground Combat Units” dtd DEC 8 2025

OVERVIEW.

Secretary Hegseth has called for a review of objective and subjective data relative to women in combat arms. Of note, the Secretary has said on previous occasions that he believes standards were lowered for women, and has made no secret of his desire to remove women from these roles. 

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However, this work has already been done.  During the Soldier 2020 Integration program following the opening of combat arms specialties to women, the Army gathered extensive objective data on the impact of integrating women into combat arms units. Annual evaluations of unit readiness were conducted from 2019 to 2023. Gender-neutral occupational standards were developed for each military occupational specialty as part of this program. 

During this period, the Army concluded there was no evidence of any degradation to unit readiness or effectiveness due to the presence of women. 

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These new requirements are unnecessary: the reviews have been done.
They are burdensome: they demand an overwhelming amount of data, down to detailed information about individual soldiers, which will be a distraction for operational units. 
And finally, along with the clear commander’s intent to ban women, the use of subjective questions will likely reflect biases, myths and misinformation. 

This is a search for a problem that does not exist.

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Women have demonstrated over the last ten years that they can meet and exceed the standards with excellence. Women have been the honor graduates of officer training programs and the US Army Ranger school. Women have earned Combat Dive Badges, Combat Infantryman Badges, Expert Infantryman Badges and Expert Soldier Badges. Women serve as Master Gunners and Company Commanders.  Over 5000 women serve in Combat Arms. 174 women have earned Ranger Tabs alongside almost 15,000 men with the SAME STANDARDS. The 2024 Best Ranger Competition was a public display of women meeting the same standards as men – and excelling.

BACKGROUND.

 In 2015, the Army initiated the “Soldier 2020” program to integrate women into previously closed occupations (primarily Infantry and Armor).

The program proceeded in four phases:

• Phase I - 2015-2016 - Set Conditions: train and educate leaders, update policies, set recruiters and cadre, finalize unit fill plans, develop longitudinal study plans, accessions, establish occupational physical assessment test (OPAT) scoring, and validate occupational standards.

• Phase II - 2016-2017 Initiate Gender-Neutral Training: train women in accordance with the implementation plan, initiate longitudinal studies, and implement OPAT.

• Phase III -2018 -2022- Assignment to Operational Units: assign women in accordance with unit fill plans, continue longitudinal studies, intensively manage and assign by cohort.

• Phase IV - 2023-present - Sustain and Optimize Army: continue to access and train and achieve steady state operations.

RESULTS.

In five years of data collection, the Army found no negative effect on unit readiness or effectiveness due to integration of women.

a. First Data collection was September 2019. Data included:

Individual Unit Training – weapons qualification. expert badges
Collective Training – platform crew, crew served weapons and platform external evaluations
Combat Training Center Performance (12 points of platoon performance)

b. In a July 2019 the Annual Report on Progress of the Army in Integrating Women into Military Occupational Specialties and Units Recently Opened to Women was submitted to Congress.
Chief of Staff GEN Mark Milley reported:

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"Over the last 3 years, the Army has made steady progress toward the full integration of women into the Army. With the opening of all career fields and approximately 138,000 additional positions since 2015, qualified women who meet all applicable standards are now eligible for every position in the Army.  Most notably, the Army developed, reviewed, and validated gender-neutral occupational standards to assess and assign soldiers to units."

c.  In a July 2021 review of data, US Forces Command found no impact to unit readiness.

Overall Commander’s Assessment: No impact to unit readiness [based on the relatively small sample of integrated female 11/19 Soldiers].

Training Assessment:  Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) with females integrated and serving in Infantry/Armor/Cavalry/Field Artillery/Engineer positions at the squad/crew/platoon/company level are performing at the same level of training proficiency as those BCTs that are non-integrated.  

Military Justice/Chapter Eliminations:  Indiscipline rates and chapter eliminations in integrated units remain consistent with those of non-integrated units

Criminal Offenders:  Indiscipline/crime trends in the three examined non-integrated BCTs were higher than those in the four examined integrated BCTs

SHARP:  No significant statistical difference between integrated and non-integrated BCTs

Operational Mission 1/4 ID deployed to CENTCOM; 1/1 CD deployed to EUCOM, 3/1 AD deployed to Korea, 2/1 AD deployed to OSS: 3 CR deployed to SWB mission

Training: Integrated combat arms series females have not impacted collective training performance.  There is no readiness impact at crew/squad level and above.

Personnel Readiness: Continued increase in individual and collective qualifications from COVID-19 lows

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d.  In a July 2022 review of data, US Forces Command found no impact to unit readiness.

"Using data collected through eight reporting quarters to date, FORSCOM has reported no impact to unit readiness based on the integration of female Career Management Fields (CMF) 11/19 (infantry and armor) Soldiers." 

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e.  Data collection was ended in 2023 as the Army transitioned to Phase 4, removing the requirement for quarterly data collection.

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f.  In 2021, an outside study* surveyed male soldiers from the formerly all-male Infantry and Armor branches of the U.S. Army to evaluate the effects of serving with women. This mixed-methods study used primary survey data collected from soldiers serving in the 33 active-duty Army brigade combat teams.

A total of 8,798 respondents answered the anonymous electronic questionnaire.  

Results indicated that the presence of women within an infantry or armor platoon or squad, or exposure to a female leader, predicted that a male respondent was significantly more likely to support gender integration in combat arms and less likely to worry about effects on unit cohesion and performance.

The importance of this study was that it showed that women performed well, demonstrated by the fact that serving with women gave men more confidence, rather than less, in their capabilities.

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CONCLUSION.
Despite evidence that women have performed well in formerly all-male Infantry and Armor units, meeting gender-neutral standards, successfully serving in leadership positions, earning competitive badges and positions, with no negative effects observed, the new Secretary is bent on creating data that will allow him to fulfill his desire to marginalize women in the Army. This exhaustive, unnecessary reporting requirement will divert time from training and mission.

* https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0095327X241298608 

Kris Fuhr, USMA ‘85
Former HQE Gender Integration, FORSCOM
Founding Member WISCi https://www.wiscimil.org/