8 inches shorter, 31.7 pounds lighter, has 37.4 fewer pounds of muscle, and carries 5.7 more pounds of fat than the average male recruit (Reed 1,2). These facts suggest numerous problems in a field that requires strength and speed. In addition, the physical difference between men and women may cause women to feel like failures if they don't complete a mission. Also, Sergeant Kelly Logan, on her 1997 tour of duty with peacekeeping forces in Bosnia, observed that women tended to move themselves to the sidelines when they had to do things like digging and reinforcing bunkers, and the guys ended up doing most of the physical work (Aspy 141). Women are also more prone to suffering injuries. An army study of 124 men and 186 women reports that women are five times as likely to suffer stress fractures than men, and they are more than twice as likely to suffer leg injuries than men (Reed 2). Stephanie Gutmann, the author of The kinder, Gentler Military: Can America's Gender-Neutral Fighting Force Still Win Wars?, states that women are also more likely to suffer from sprained or broken ankles, have back problems, and suffer from lower body injuries (Bockhorn 2). It is obvious that their bodies are not made for the physical strength needed to perform in the military.
Women are not allowed to participate in a number of the services the military has to offer. On October 1, 1994 Secretary of Defense Aspin had announced that "women shall be excluded from assignments to units below the brigade level whose primary mission is to engage in direct combat on the ground" (Burrelli 8). Direct combat is defined as "engaging an enemy on the ground with individual or crew served weapons, while being exposed to hostile fire and to a high probability of direct physical contact with the hostile forces personnel. Direct combat takes place forward on the battlefield while locating and closing with the enemy to defeat them by fire, maneuver, or shock effect" (Burrelli 8).