Hegseth; Why Age-Normed But Not Sex-Normed Standards?

WASHINGTON - Sept. 30, 2025 - PRLog -- In a controversial decree 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 . .  But when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral "  [emphasis added]

Hegseth is insisting that all combat units must "execute their service test at a gender-neutral, age-normed male standard scored above 70%."  [emphasis added]

But he apparently failed to explain why the standards will remain "age-normed" but not sex-normed, since medical science, as well as common sense and everyday experience, has shown that for very similar immutable reasons (age and sex), both older soldiers and female soldiers cannot meet the same very high physical fitness as younger males.

So, by the same logic, the physical fitness standards could just as well be age-neutral but gender-normed, argues public interest law professor John Banzhaf, who has been derided by his enemies as a "radical feminist" (although he denies it), and who has won over 100 cases of sex discrimination.

Because so many critics are complaining that Hegseth's new physical fitness standards are unfair to because they fail to make allowance for sex the way they do for age, he may have to come forward and explain.

So, concludes Banzhaf, 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.

But in many combat situations, especially in countries where very strongly held religious beliefs and custom very strictly limit male-female conduct and interactions, the advantage of having at least a few female soldiers - better able to search females for hidden weapons, or even just to bond and obtain their cooperation - may be more important than making sure that every combat soldier is able to carry a heavy weapon.

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