Dont get me wrong, there should not be an "equality" as in making equal spots for males/females or anything else. You should get where you are by fact of merit, and thats it. thenuge, Im sorry that you got passed up for a bs reason, but it goes both ways, and its never fair. No doubt, mixing the sexes in any situation increases a certain type of "pollution", but if its not one thing, its another.
Some aspects of the military are probably better staying just the way they are, whether that be all male or whatever. But like many of you have said earlier, things will happen and there is no stopping them. Better to just roll with punches...
FLYGIRL,
I can speak from recent experience, as my squadron has beed FORCIBLY INTERGRATED in the last month. I did go thru intergrated commands in the training pipeline, and before that.
If women can meet the physical standards that men can, fine. I am sick of women who can BARELY do 20 push ups and get a better PFA score than me. For weight, yeah, I can see Height-Weight being different due to certain glands being larger, but when I see a woman who is about to burst her pants because she is so fat, but she makes weight, that is BS.
As to the meeting the same physical standards, If there is a peice of equipent that is two man carry, that we need to move NOW any one who is available better damn be able to pick up their end. In this aspect, PUSHUPS and CURLUPS should be the SAME!
Need to run like heck from an impending explosion, or a crash site before AliBaba & co come? Better be able to run as fast as me (not very) because I AM NOT CARRYING YOU. I can WALK and pass the Female PFA standard for my age bracket.
Women need to realize, this is a male dominated field. Wanna come and play with the boys, be ready to get yelled at, and play by our rules. Sexual harrasment is WRONG, however, not being able to do you job correctly (in my case, instruct new fleet pilots) by having to walk on eggshells is WRONG as well.
FG, not to bust your tail, but have you been in the fleet? You MAY be one of the women, like 2 of the 3 female pilots we have who can BEAT me in PT, and tell dirtier jokes than we do. You may be like the one that cried last night when I told her I have no comprehension how she got her wings, because she let go of the static wicks before turning downwind. (as in, she was WAY behind the aircraft).
For her crying, she gets to fly with me 3 days next week. She has used her silver bullet with me (everyone can have a bad day, I'm not that much of a jerk). She needs to fly like a competent co-pilot (that is what the RAG is supposed to turn out) or she will have a RUDE awakening of my dislike of flying with 2Ps with NAFOD.