WASHINGTON — A nine-month experiment intended to gauge whether combat jobs should be open to women Marines provided mixed results.
Although some women completed the two-part assignment intended to mimic combat conditions and performed well, others found the work grueling and physically challenging, Marine Corps Times reporter Hope Hodge Seck tells WTOP.
Many dropped out of the voluntary assessment held in both North Carolina and California. A total of 400 Marines participated in the monthslong experiment, including about 100 women who took roles in artillery, infantry and mechanized units, Seck says.
“It’s not only a question of can they do it, but how many want to do it,” Seck says.
She interviewed several of the volunteers, both men and women, about their experiences. The test was designed to help the Marines decide whether to open up combat roles to women or to seek exceptions from Defense Sec. Ash Carter by this fall. All remaining all-male positions will be opened to women, unless the defense secretary approves, exceptions by January 2016.
The Army, Navy and Air Force are expected to recommend opening all jobs to women, but Marine Corps officials were undecided as of August.
For the women, tasks that involved carrying heavy loads — such as 60-pound packs — were one of the hardest aspect of working in combat units.
“Hiking over long distances carrying that weight was particularly difficult for female troops,” Seck says.
In her story, published earlier this week, Seck writes that some of the women had to drop out due to hip injuries. Others decided the infantry wasn’t for them.
Building relationships with female troops created hurdles for the men, many of whom had more experience than the female volunteers and weren’t accustomed to working with women.
Some of the men felt the women benefited from special treatment. But the relationship and cultural dynamics varied in part based on the type of job. And some of the women assigned to an infantry unit felt they were accepted, Seck says.
Seck says of the 7 percent of all Marines who are women, probably just a small number of them would actually seek to join a combat unit. But that offers another question to for military brass to consider.
“For those who can and want to, is it worth opening it up for them,” Seck says.
According to The Associated Press, only a handful of jobs in the Navy and the Air Force are currently off-limits to women. And the Army has slowly opened some combat positions to female soldiers.
Still, thousands of Army and Marine Corps jobs remain closed to women despite their extensive combat experience in Afghanistan and Iraq.
