Men are Too Rough to Train with, [UK] Army Tells Women
From next April, women will be placed in their own platoons and although the training regime will remain the same, it will be conducted at a pace 'sustainable and commensurate with their physical profile'.
Army chiefs hope the changes will greatly reduce drop-out rates among women after research showed female recruits are up to nine times more likely than men to be discharged through a training-related injury.
Dr James Bilzon, the Army Training and Recruitment Agency's senior scientific adviser, found that women are getting hurt as they try to match men in arduous drills and marches wearing full combat gear....The changes will end a decade of mixed platoons and are a rebuff to modernisers who insisted women soldiers should be treated equally....Colonel Bob Stewart, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his service in Bosnia in the early Nineties, said it was "hardly surprising" the Army could not train men and women together.
"Men are stronger and more robust and it's silly to pretend otherwise. It seems that at last the Army has woken up to the fact that women are different - something blatantly obvious to anyone," he added.
The change is for training only; combat units will continue to be integrated.
