Hegseth's Male Fitness Standards - History and Analysis by Expert

WASHINGTON - Sept. 30, 2025 - PRLog -- In a controversial comment this morning, Hegseth Announces Troops in Combat Jobs Have to Meet Highest Male Physical Standards (https://taskandpurpose.com/news/military-troops-combat-standards/) because, he said, "War does not care if you're a man or a woman, neither does the enemy."

Hegseth thus demands that all combat units must "execute their service test at a gender-neutral, age-normed male standard scored above 70%."

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's demand that males and females in the military should meet the same physical fitness requirements hearkens back to a similar debate which occurred when the Virginia Military Institute [VMI] and the Citadel were forced for the first time to admit females, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, whose complaint forced the Citadel to admit its first female cadet even before VMI, and who has won over 100 legal cases protecting women's rights to equal treatment. . . .

But perhaps females also serving in some combat roles which do not necessary require great strength - e.g. as field medics - probably would not have to meet the same exacting standards most women would find too physically challenging.

To illustrate why both men and women serving in combat roles had to meet the same very tough physical standards, Hegseth noted that "the weight of the 155 round that you have to carry doesn't change, the weight of the 240 Bravo machine gun you might have to carry doesn't change. And so whether it's a man or a woman, they have to meet the same high standards."

The need to carefully delineate what physical challenges are integral for a specific role, and which are at most peripheral or only occasional, is perhaps best illustrated by debates over whether there should be different physical standards based upon gender for police officers and for fire fighters, says Banzhaf, based upon the examples he uses in his classroom discussions about sex discrimination. . . .

So, concludes Banzhaf, who has been derided by his enemies as a "radical feminist" (although he denies it), there is a strong argument for requiring females to meet the same difficult physical fitness standards as men, but perhaps only  where having sufficient strength and other physical attributes to perform common and unavoidable tasks cannot be avoided.

However, the law professor notes with some irony, Hegseth favors age-normed physical fitness standards, but not sex-normed physical fitness standards, although both women and older men generally have substantially less upper body strength than young males for very understandable reasons.

http://banzhaf.net/ jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com @profbanzhaf