Akenaton: Also the issue of physical strength does come into it in close quarter combat.
Men and women are not "equal" in physical strength, no matter how fit or well trained they may be.
Members of infantry battalions are required to perform many arduous tasks in extreme conditions, involving the hauling of heavy gear and weapons.

Many women are not equal to many men in physical strength, but SOME are, and it's ridiculous to say there's no overlap "no matter how well trained they may be".

If training standards are the same for both sexes then a woman who's passed the criteria will be as capable as a man who's passed the same criteria of performing to the requirement.

I do British Military Fitness (BMF) training several times a week with a variety of people of ages from early 20s upwards, though I'm the oldest by a number of years. Although this is civilian training, it's based on military requirements and carried out by former or serving military personnel, many of them PTIs.

There is *some* correlation between age and sex and performance in the group, but it's by no means rigid. I'm approaching my 7th decade, yet I can almost keep up with a current serving Royal Marine who joins us for workouts when he's on leave. He's far faster than me on running but I do better than him on core strength and upper body work.

Our high performance "Green Bibs" are pretty evenly spread between male and female, and all the females in "Green" will outperform all the males in "Red" (next performance level down) in both strength and speed.

For events like 10 mile cross-country runs with integral assault courses, and stretcher-carry races, teams are usually mixed and there's no concerns about evening up the sexes in them. Did a race/weight carry event this morning where I was the only male in our team of 6. No concessions to ages or sex and we managed to come in 2nd.

Women who do physical stuff and train hard are often as strong and fast as the men. If I was 40 years younger and in the forces I'd have no problems with serving in a combat role alongside most of the women I currently train with.