Women serving on the front line-woman on radio 5

[PenelopePitstops]

Listening to the radio this morning and they are discussing women fighting on the front line. A woman is on there arguing that women shouldn't be allowed to serve

Otoh a fabulous man is arguing against her very well saying that women are equal and why on earth can't they do the same job.

An interesting debate.

As EDR has said there will be a cost (significant probably) in procuring the remodelled standard equipment. Some will undoubtedly argue that females wear the standard equipment now why not use it for infantrywoman? I see this as unacceptable for long term, continuos infantry or Commando service.

There would need to be huge changes to the living infrastructure of every unit that could potentially receive females incl infantry training centres, CTCRM and the 80 plus operational units (unless of course females where discriminated against and couldn't serve in the unit of their choice!). This could require changes to 400-ish company or squadron level accommodation blocks if they are to be housed at this level as would be normal.

The reality is that there will probably be no more than a company's worth throughout the Infantry, RA and RAC in the Army and the 4 Commando Units that recruit normally join. That will take years but the big question is not how many but where they will serve.

There could be additional costs involved in providing the same level of routine (GP type) medical care if female elect to see female doctors which are to my knowledge extremely rare at unit level. Current research suggests that during training and beyond a proportionately greater number of female will be injured, requiring treatment, rehab and then reintroduction to training or operational duty, which results in the mean cost of an infantrywoman being greater than an infantryman (resource accounting at its finest!).

IMD

Apologies for the error above because of course females already serve as Gunners. I had 29 Cdo in my mind.

IMD