Pentagon Reopens Debate Over Women in Combat

The Pentagon is launching a six-month look at how women are performing in ground combat jobs, reopening a debate that many in the military thought was settled a decade ago. In a memo obtained by NPR, Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel Anthony Tata directs the Army and Marine Corps to turn over detailed data on women serving in infantry, armor, and artillery units. The review aims to assess "operational effectiveness" 10 years after the ban on women in ground combat roles was lifted. Services are being asked for statistics on readiness, training, performance, injuries, and unit climate, as well as any internal research on integrating women that hasn't been made public.

Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said the study is meant to ensure that combat standards remain "elite, uniform, and sex-neutral," arguing that the department "will not compromise standards to satisfy quotas or an ideological agenda." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who argued during his time as a Fox News commentator that "we should not have women in combat roles," has since said women can serve if they meet the same benchmarks as men. In a 2025 address to senior leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, he insisted all women in combat arms must meet the "highest male standard" and called for physical requirements that were eased after 2015 to be restored.

Roughly 3,800 women currently serve in Army infantry, armor, and artillery units, including more than 150 who have passed Ranger School and about 10 who have qualified as Green Berets; the Marine Corps has about 700 women in similar posts. Supporters of integration see the new review as an attempt to roll back those gains. Retired Army Col. Ellen Haring called it "an effort to prove women don't belong," while former Army integration official Khris Fuhr pointed to a 2018-2023 Army study that found women in ground combat units performed well, sometimes outscoring men. Hegseth—who pledged at his nomination hearing to support women in all military roles, the Hill reports—said during an address to admirals and generals last year that if returning to old physical standards "means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it."