Women who served in the US military are pushing back against Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement that the requirements for combat roles will “return to the highest male standard”, saying the standards have always been the same for men and women.
“None of us have ever asked for special treatment,” Elisa Cardnell, who served in the US Navy for eleven years, told the BBC.
Speaking to hundreds of generals on Tuesday, Hegseth reiterated his beliefs that the military had lowered standards to accommodate women and put service members at risk. His new directives would bring them back to a higher level, he said.
“If it means no women qualify for combat jobs, then so be it,” he said.
He maintained that women would not be excluded from the armed forces outright.
In January, the former Fox News commentator barely won approval in the Senate to head the Pentagon. Vice-President JD Vance had to break the tie vote, as many lawmakers struggled with his views about women in the military and about diversity.
On Tuesday he told the generals that he had emailed them 10 directives that included the “male standard”.
Some female veterans were outraged.
“I am sick and tired of Pete Hegseth lying about women in the military and standards,” former US Marine fighter pilot Amy McGarth said in a video on Instagram.
“There has always been one standard for those jobs,” she said. “There was never a man’s standard or a woman’s standard for flying a jet.”
Ms Cardnell, too, said gender and age were not part of assessments given for combat roles.
Combat standards are set differently depending on the unit a person is serving in, whether they are in special operations, infantry, armour or pararescue, she said. But all personnel in those roles have to pass the same test.
“These standards have always been gender neutral, and they have always been set at a high standard,” she said. “Of course, not all women are going to make those, but not all men do either.”
This is not the same for the annual physical tests given to all service members, which include routine exercises like push-ups. There, the standards and scores differ based on age and gender, and the tests vary by unit.
Ms Cardnell said it remains unclear if Hegseth will actually bring sweeping changes to how military personnel are assessed. The BBC asked the Pentagon for clarification on Hegseth’s plans.
In his speech, Hegseth said: “Any place where tried-and-true physical standards were altered, especially since 2015, when combat arms standards were changed to ensure females could qualify, must be returned to their original standard.”
He appeared to refer to a directive in 2015 by then-Defence Secretary Ash Carter that all military jobs be open to women and that any person, regardless of gender, who meets the standards should be able to serve.
“When it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral,” Hegseth said. “If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is.”
Broadly, Hegseth said he was changing requirements throughout the military to “fix decades of decay” and that the armed forces have “promoted too many uniformed leaders for the wrong reasons,” like race, gender and “historic so-called firsts”.
Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Army veteran who was severely injured while serving as a combat pilot in Iraq, told the BBC after the speech: “For a guy who’s not qualified for his own job, it’s pretty discriminatory to talk about women who are qualified to do their jobs.”
She added that his remarks could hurt recruitment.
Women in the US military were first allowed to fly combat aircraft in the Navy and Air Force in 1993, although they were excluded from ground combat. That changed in 2013 when the Combat Exclusion Policy was lifted and by 2016 combat roles were open to all.
Because of how recently women were included in all ranks, many are now still in the middle of their careers, Ms Cardnell said.
“It takes time to see those women break that brass ceiling, and we haven’t had a chance to see that,” she said.
Now active and veteran female soldiers are concerned that Hegseth is building a military culture where women will be undermined and unable to advance, she said.
“Leadership sets the tone,” she said.
Not all female soldiers opposed Hegseth’s comments.
Republican House Representative Sheri Biggs, who served as a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, said that she supported the defence secretary’s efforts to end “woke” policies from the military.
