Army Basic Training: Male and Female Requirements
In prepping for my radio show today I came across an interesting article concerning gender identity, by the way did you know that before modern times, the term gender was used solely when referring to the grammar of some languages. Languages, such as French, in which nouns and pronouns are masculine, feminine or neuter and require words syntactically associated with them.
In reading the article I discovered a link to the military.com website article concerning Army Basic Training requirements. These requirements are required to pass the Basic Training APFT to graduate boot camp and continue on to Advance Infantry Training
According to the article the Army's Basic Training Physical Fitness Test they involve a three-event physical performance test that is used to assess the soldier’s endurance. These three physical test are there to measure your physical strengths, abilities, and cardio-respiratory fitness.
The three PFT tests are two minutes of push-ups, two minutes of sit-ups, and a timed 2-mile run. According to the article the following chart are minimum requirements to pass, they are:
| Age Group | Gender | Push-Ups | Sit-Ups | 2-Mile Run |
| 17 - 21 | Male | 35 | 47 | 16:36 |
| Female | 13 | 47 | 19.42 | |
| 22 - 26 | Male | 31 | 43 | 17:30 |
| Female | 11 | 43 | 20:36 |
The problem I see comes into play when evaluating a female to be able to perform their duties if they choose to become soldiers on the battlefield. Would you want to be on the battlefield with a female who passed the physical training portion of their training by only having to do 37% of the pushups of a male at the age of 17-21 or 35% of the pushups of a male at the age of 22-26? Not to mention their ability to complete a 2-mile run in the same minimum standard as a male.
I do not have an issue with females being on the battlefield but I certainly would want them to have the same strength as a male if I was injured and needed to be dragged out of harm’s way.
Should we expect females who wish to be a battlefield solider and I compliment them for that, to be able to demonstrate the same physical strength and endurance as male?
By the way according to an article in military.com published in July of this year the current Army Physical Fitness Test will be replaced:
with a new, more strenuous fitness evaluation designed to prepare soldiers for the rigors of combat…By October 2020, all soldiers, regardless of age or gender, will be required to take the new Army Combat Fitness Test -- a six-event test that measures muscular strength, muscular endurance, power, flexibility, coordination, speed, agility, cardiovascular endurance, balance and reaction time.
We will see if their new test will be implemented or not in 2020.
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