Sounds deeply flawed given that the men had previous experience and the women didn't.
What a surprise...
Seriously, why would they used inexperienced females mixed with experienced males if they didn't want to deliberately skew the result?
They obviously had access to raw recruits, but there's a deeply flawed methodology using experienced men with inexperienced women.
https://www.nasa.gov/content/men-women-spaceflight-adaptatio...
Here are more details of women who had less training than men managed to outperform those men in physical activity.
2. Even if we assume that they outperformed men on the tests, it does not qualify as 'outperforming men in a physical activity'.
If they want the requirement to be an effective soldier is to be able to toss a pack of a certain weight to the top of a wall, then make it a training requirement and I'm sure suddenly lots of women would be able to do it.
By framing this discussion as men are stronger than women, you're technically right, but it's a meaningless measure.
The actual question is, can trained women be strong enough? That's what they were trying to simulate but they cheated and stacked the deck against the women. And your statement is meaningless against that measure.
And the other disingenuous part of the 'tests' is that was every man in a squad able to carry a wounded man? Or did the squads just tend to volunteer the strongest person each time which by the laws of average, because men are on average stronger than women, would tend to be a man? So it's another massaged statistic.
Therefore we have to consider not whether women can be strong 'enough' but whether women can be equally strong to men (because if they are not going to be equally strong, the team with women on it would lose to all-male team).
That is why the sports analogy is relevant - because the most competent women compete against most competent men. And there is no athletic sport where women stand a chance.
Horse riding definitely neutral, so are motorsports.
Possibly others skill based without speed/strength element.
Regarding motorsports - I thought there was one woman who competed in US motorsport division (NASCAR) but didn't make it far? Are there any women who win at F1 or whatever?
The fact the women seem to have done as well as men wrt hit probability using the M4 but not the heavier weapons, really point to physical limitations and not lack of skills.
The casualty evacuation issue is also a major issue, men can carry both sexes, women will have trouble with many men, and will be completely unable to move the bigger men...
Who knows what the results would have been if both the men and women had been inexperienced, instead of skewing it to the men. How much working out had the experienced men done? How many tricks and techniques had they picked up to add to their abilities?
Also, what happens when both are experienced. Does it turn out that after a year the women build more strength on average to make up for present childhood norms emphasising femininity?
That's not difficult to imagine that some conditioning or some pattern may not be as efficient with women, especially since that training is based on decades of all-male combat experience with only theoretical adjustment for including women.
Which is not really surprising. You wouldn't expect a female pro athlete to win against a male pro one, and the warfield is very physicaly demanding.
Even in Israel, I don't think ground fighting forces are composed of women. I've heard they were assigned to radar and monitoring tasks (not 100% sure, though).
Women have certainly served in combat roles, and been involved in action including lethal shooting, since 2000 (1). For example the Caracal combat batallion is 70% women(2), at least several of which are known to have been involved in firefights (clarification - killed people). There is also currently a sniper team lead by a woman officer and there is a female combat battalion commander.
Edit: The calculation for Israel is different. They are a small country and need conscription in order to maintain a viable combat force. They have a stark choice. Include women in combat roles, or increase the service term for men, or reduce the size of their combat force. But the fact is they have shown that women are perfectly capable of being operationally effective.
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_Israel_Defense_Fo...