Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, has waited a long time for the announcement Secretary Hegseth made in late March, when he signed a memorandum directing the military branches to implement tough gender-neutral standards for men and women.
"What he wants,” she says, “is high, uncompromised standards in the combat arms units. We're talking about infantry, armor, artillery, special operations forces, Navy SEALS, Delta Force, and the like."
Donnelly and CMR witnessed President Obama hollow out the U.S. armed forces in 2012, now 13 years ago, when the radically liberal president opened up front-line combat units to women.
To follow through on Obama’s order, the U.S. Army dropped its Army Physical Fitness Test and replaced it with the misnamed Army Combat Fitness Test.
What was supposed to a gender-neutral standard for men and women crumbled under the weight of real life, however, when women suffered predictably high failure rates.
Rangers didn’t lead the way
At the elite, body-breaking Ranger School, for example, 100 women participated in a pre-training phase in January 2015 to get them ready for the school. By April of that year, however, only 19 had qualified for its first phase, a 15-day test known as the Darby Phase. By the end of Darby, in June of 2025, the remaining eight female Ranger School candidates had failed it on the first attempt.
In August of that year, the national media was celebrating the two female Army officers who passed Ranger School and got their Ranger tab. A story by People, however, cited multiple sources who said a Pentagon general had ordered the Ranger School to make sure a female candidate passed the course by giving them multiple chances not offered to men.
“Well, it turns out that that was a promise that could not be kept,” Donnolly points out. “It didn't work. It has shattered the theories and promises about gender equality in the combat arms."
After stating as recently as last November he "straight up" opposes women in combat units, Hegseth has said more recently women can serve in those roles if they meet the same physical standards.
At his heated confirmation hearings, Hegseth was accused by livid Democrats of tip-toeing around the issue and having an "11th hour conversion" over women in combat.
In a post on X, filmed during a military flight from Japan, Hegseth showed the memo he was about to sign and said his goal is a more lethal armed forces.
“For far too long,” Hegseth said, “we have allowed standards to slip. We’ve had different standards for men/women serving in combat arms, MOS, and jobs. That’s not acceptable, and it changes right now.”
