Duped by the "Frailty Myth": USMC Gender Based Physical Fitness Standards
Abstract
American women have been dying in combat on the non-linear battlefield for over twenty years. Despite this fact, the Corps is not preparing female Marines adequately for the physical rigors of combat. The Marine Corps' manual for physical fitness states, "Every Marine must be physically fit, regardless of age, grade, or duty assignment." Further, an essential aspect of combat readiness is physical conditioning that includes strength training, defined as "the ability of the muscular system to move the body through resistance... and the ability of Marines to effectively handle their own body weight." Upper-body strength training for females, however, is largely ignored. The neglect of upper-body development for women is demonstrated, and perpetuated, by the absence of an accurate metric to measure upper-body strength for female Marines on the physical fitness test (PFT). To date, the PFT requires female Marines to perform a flexed-arm hang (FAH), despite a TECOM report on 30 August 2001 that the FAH had no correlation to combat strength/skill. Despite this ten-year-old report and compelling evidence recently published by TECOM that pull-ups are a more appropriate metric than the FAH and that female Marines are capable of performing pull-ups,the study did not effect any change to the PFT standard. Why the reluctance to update USMC PFT standards for women? The irrational insistence on maintaining outdated standards for women Marines supports the concept that learned female weakness has been systematically entrenched in American society, and by extension, in the United States Marine Corps.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 07, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA600535
Entities
People
- Misty J. Posey
Organizations
- Marine Corps University