Women power the armed services

A milestone on gender parity in the Indian armed forces was reached this week, when a woman IAF officer was assigned to train as an active flyer for the Rafale Jet fighter aircraft. This along with the recent announcement by the Indian Navy that two women officers will work on Naval warships as part of the ship's crew, will certainly expand women's participation in the armed forces.

A milestone has been reached at bringing gender parity within the armed forces through the Supreme Court verdict of 17 February 2020. The next milestone: including women in combat roles. These are typically the last bastions to fall. Even the more liberal and developed societies have taken significant time in inducting women in combat. Australia inducted them in 2013, the U.S. and U.K. in 2016. While the inclusion of women has been welcomed, questions still remain about their ability to perform in combat-intensive operations. The most recent study from 2015 reveals that all-male ground combat teams outperform their mixed-gender counterparts in nearly every capacity.

Marine Corps Times article Mixed-gender teams come up short in Marines’ infantry experiment

Image