By comparison, the Army, Navy and Air Force are adamant about combining the sexes and have no plans even to collect data on whether gender integration is working. We asked Anita to share some insights on this issue of genuine national importance. Many people confuse race and gender discrimination. The two concepts are not the same. Mere skin color is never a legitimate rationale for any decision about how to treat a group.
Sex is a different matter.
Sex organs and sexual hormones create fundamental physical differences between men and women. Sometimes the differences don't matter, but sometimes they do. I learned from troops in Bosnia that the original plan to house men and women together by unit in the same tents was quickly abandoned by mutual consent. Both women and men desired privacy from the opposite sex. To be sure, a small number of women can compete physically with some men.