US Army halts gender neutral fitness test as women struggle

The ACFT aims to be gender neutral which is a reflection of changes both in Army&#x27;s policy of allowing women to serve in direct combat roles (which used to be men-only jobs) along with transgendered members being allowed to openly serve or trans people being allowed to enlist.<p>The difficulty with designing this test is many. The test cannot reduce combat readiness of your forces so the minimum requirements do need to actually reflect the minimum requirements of being combat ready. Another pain point is that women on average are quite a bit weaker than men, and that gap is widened when everyone is participating in physical fitness activities. Both of these factors probably compound into making the ACFT extremely difficult to pass for the average female service member.<p>For the old APFT there was an army-wide standard of a minimum passing score of 180 (max 300) in 3 events, with a required minimum 60 point score in each event. The points are weighted by age and gender. Some jobs in the Army had much higher requirements than the baseline to reflect the increased physicality of the job.<p>If the new ACFT wants to aim for gender neutral baseline score, it&#x27;ll probably have to be pretty low and the pass rate for men will probably be extremely high. Perhaps they just need to apply different requirements for different jobs to ensure that combat readiness isn&#x27;t sacrificed.

&gt; The US army is considering scrapping its new gender neutral fitness test because women have been failing in much larger numbers than men.<p>&gt; Research showed that the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT), which is the same for male and female soldiers, was leading to lower results for women with a knock-on effect for promotions.<p>&gt; An early Pentagon study showed women were failing the ACFT at a rate of 65 per cent, compared with 10 per cent for men. Congress has halted implementation of the new test and the army has begun an independent review into whether it is fair. It has been suggested that the standard test could be evaluated differently for men and women.<p>Biology is a fact and for some jobs — like combat in the army — that biological difference matters and will manifest in any unbiased test.<p>I’m concerned by our inability to talk about facts.

China has a word for laughing at western society about all this. Baizuo.

I think it&#x27;s conceivable for well funded militaries to restructure equipment and doctrine for combat rolls to cater to lower performance standards. Reality however is infantry are carrying more than ever and performance is biasing more towards athleticism. GWOT has increased reliance for SOF units, and when millions are being sunk into each individual operator, you want to get your money&#x27;s worth. Not to mention the amount of resources expended to service casualties both in field and in civilian life, for perpetuity. I&#x27;m sure some bean counter has done the actuarial accounting, and it&#x27;s really up to society to decide if equality is worth the cost, which will be massive since it involves a whole of military effort considering every piece of equipment was designed for male performance curve in mind, i.e. F35 ejection seats isn&#x27;t designed for pilots under 140lbs.

People do not realize that the current state of conflict is not so simple. We require to test varied skillsets for the test to be practical, and we are not only getting those skillsets in people at the absolute peak of physical performance. The weight the PT test has in promotions should depend on how important your job physicality is.

Is it possible to create a gender neutral fitness test on which men didn&#x27;t significantly outperform women?

&gt; The test includes six events - a maximum deadlift, a standing power throw, hand-release push-ups, a sprint, drag and carry, leg tuck, and a two-mile run. Those taking it must score at least 360 points out of a possible 600, and those who achieve higher scores are more likely to be promoted.<p>Just a dumb RPG comment but it seems to be weighted toward STR more than DEX or END. Even a 2-mile run seems suspiciously meh compared to a max deadlift. Is this normal for Army fitness? Hopefully it wasn&#x27;t a knee-jerk designed by frightened men...