I absolutely support gender equality–equality in general, really. That’s not equality of outcome, that’s equality of opportunity. Thus, women absolutely should be able to apply for and be given equal consideration for any position in the military but they should also have to have the same required training, and pass the same tests under the same conditions. This is particularly true when it comes to the Rangers, because they are the elite. If those standards are lowered for some to make some kind of political statement, it might look good in the papers, but then if that person is later called on to perform a duty that he or she cannot because he or she got a pass on a test that would have otherwise filtered out that lack, that may not only jeopardize an assignment, it could cost people their lives.
Yes, there are some unfortunate situations surrounding how differences in gender, or perhaps even race or sexuality or religion or what-have-you, are raised, educated and trained as kids that that may affect their long-term carrier aspirations, but the way to fix that isn’t to put potentially under-qualified people into positions, it’s to address those differences at the source of those differences. Putting gender aside for a moment, consider a theoretical ranger candidate who is able to pass all the tests, but perhaps part of that is because he was raised in a military family and thus had military aspirations from a young age and had the fortune of getting focused and specialized training because of connections his parents have, participating in sports and other activities to improve his physical skills and teamwork, even possibly gearing his education toward that. And then take the same person and have him grow up in a more typical modern household where he may not have had a childhood preparing him for that and he doesn’t decide to apply for the rangers until he’s nearly out of high school so time he could have spent training in his youth was instead spent playing video games or whatever. That could easily make the difference.
The unfortunate aspect here is not only that men generally have a distinct physical advantage in general, but especially at the elite level, which is why it’s extraordinarily rare to have women competing on equal footing with men in most physical competitions and sports. So, when we’re talking about just physically skilled women capable of serving in combat, I’ve little doubt there are women out there able to meet those requirements, but when we’re talking the elite forces, probabilisticly speaking, that number will necessarily be even more lopsided towards men. I don’t think it’s zero, and I’d love to see the day that a bad ass woman could show up, compete for, an earn that spot, but I think it’s a disservice to her, undermining her accomplishments, and particularly her fellow soldiers she’d need to support, if a woman gets a spot by passing tests with a lower bar.
In short, please, just decide what the requirements are and then pick the best candidate regardless of gender, or race, religion, sexual preference, or whatever else too.