First female infantry officer says Army is putting lives in danger by making fitness tests easier

A woman who became the U.S. Army’s first female infantry officer has hit out against the watering down of physical-fitness standards for women, saying that all soldiers should meet the same requirements.

If women are judged on a sliding scale, she warned, then some members of a unit won’t be fully prepared – and could put soldiers at risk, including women.

‘With equal opportunity comes responsibility,’ she wrote in a recent opinion piece, which stirred up debate.

The Army last year rolled out the gender-neutral fitness test. Around 54 percent of women failed the test last year, vs. seven percent of men.

Now, the latest version of the fitness test went into effect on April 1, and includes several modifications for women, according to the Washington Post.  

The April version lets female soldiers replace a leg tuck with a plank to test core strength, for instance.

The Army also introduced plans to ‘rank scores for men and women separately as they compete for promotions,’ according to the Post.

That’s dangerous, Capt. Kristen Griest, 32, wrote in a piece for Modern War.     

Capt Kristen Griest, 32, has pushed against the Army’s plan to consider the test scores of men and women separately after the branch received complaints about a gender gap

Griest (pictured), who in 2015 became one of the first two women to graduate from the Army's Ranger School, said: 'I'm here saying, "Women can do more than we think."' She continued: 'I have learned this... Your gender is not as much of a limitation as you think it is'

Griest (pictured), who in 2015 became one of the first two women to graduate from the Army’s Ranger School, said: ‘I’m here saying, “Women can do more than we think.”‘ She continued: ‘I have learned this… Your gender is not as much of a limitation as you think it is’

Griest, who in 2015 also became one of the first two women to graduate from the Army’s Ranger School, said: ‘I’m here saying, “Women can do more than we think.”‘ 

She continued: ‘I have learned this… Your gender is not as much of a limitation as you think it is.’

Some have accused Griest of ‘internalized misogyny’, while others have taken her side. 

Griest also spoke about the fitness changes in an opinion piece published by the US Military Academy at West Point, New York.

‘As the Army’s first female infantry officer, I have long awaited the elimination of a gender-based fitness test. The drastically lower female standards of the old Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) not only jeopardized mission readiness in combat units but also reinforced the false notion that women are categorically incapable of performing the same job as men,’ Griest wrote.  

‘To not require women to meet equal standards in combat arms will not only undermine their credibility, but also place those women, their teammates, and the mission at risk,’ she wrote.

She said reverting to gender-based scoring could reduce the effectiveness of combat units. 

‘Specifically, without a separate, minimum standard for combat arms, the requirements to join the nation’s combat forces could soon be as low as performing ten push-ups in two minutes, running two miles in twenty-one minutes, deadlifting 140 pounds three times, and performing only one repetition of a leg tuck or, failing that, two minutes of a plank exercise,’ Griest wrote. 

She added: ‘Reverting to gender-based scoring and reducing the minimum standard for combat arms will also hurt the women in those branches. Under a gender-based system, women in combat arms have to fight every day to dispel the notion that their presence inherently weakens these previously all-male units. 

Griest (right in 2015) also said: 'To not require women to meet equal standards in combat arms will not only undermine their credibility, but also place those women, their teammates, and the mission at risk'

Griest (right in 2015) also said: ‘To not require women to meet equal standards in combat arms will not only undermine their credibility, but also place those women, their teammates, and the mission at risk’

‘Lower female standards also reinforce the belief that women cannot perform the same job as men, therefore making it difficult for women to earn the trust and confidence of their teammates.’ 

In April, the Army announced that it was doing away with the leg tuck requirement for its fitness test.

It ended its requirement that soldiers do at least one leg tuck — where they hang from a bar and pull their knees up near their shoulders — as part of the new physical fitness test, as it became clear that many troops, particularly women, were unable to do it. 

Now, soldiers will have the option of choosing another exercise called the plank, that also shows core strength.

That new option is just one of the changes Army leaders are making in their quest to create a fitness test that is gender- and age-neutral, but that also doesn’t end up disadvantaging female or older soldiers who simply aren’t as strong as their younger male counterparts. 

In a sweeping nod to gender differences, Army leaders said they are also going to create a new tiered system that will mask some of the fitness score differences between men and women when it comes to promotions or other job selections.

Under that system, all soldiers will take the fitness test, which includes six different exercise events. 

The minimum score for passing is 60 points on each event, for a total of 360, and the maximum is 100 points for each event, for a total of 600.

Soldiers will be assigned a ranking based on how they did compared to others of the same gender. 

For example, if they score in the top 1 per cent of their gender, they are in the platinum category, or if they are in the top 10 per cent of their gender, they are in the gold group. 

That ranking category would then show up on internal reports for promotions or other competitive assignments where a higher physical fitness score could be a deciding factor.

The new tiered system, said Maj Gen Lonnie Hibbard, ‘fosters and recognizes above-average physical performance, something that’s inherent to the Army culture. And second, it accounts for the recognized physiological differences between men and women, and it removes the direct competition between males and females within the service’. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk