In October 2018, the Defence Secretary announced that ‘Our Armed Forces will now be determined by ability alone and not gender’ as female participation will be extended to all roles in the British Armed Forces, including all aspects of the Special Forces. There are many different elements of the Special Forces which have varying roles, but the Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS) are the core combative elements (known as Tier 1 units as they are tasked with direct action when deployed). By allowing women to join these Tier 1 units, we risk undermining them in various ways, to which I shall explain further in this article.
Prior to the announcement, women could only join the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) in the Special Forces. The SRR places an emphasis on surveillance and intelligence gathering (known as a Tier 2 unit as they provide a supporting role to the Tier 1 units). However, as Tier 1 units are the ones tasked with direct action, extreme physical demands are placed on those operators more routinely than operators in Tier 2 units. This allows me to introduce my first argument: men, according to the Journal of Applied Physiology, have more skeletal muscle mass compared to women. This is especially an issue when it comes to upper body strength which is a necessity for Tier 1 combat roles. Therefore, as women are very unlikely to reach the highest standard of combat fitness in the British military, due to the way they are physically built, they should not be allowed in Tier 1 units.
If this is the case, then women simply won’t be able to join the SAS and SBS. Therefore, you may ask, what is the problem? Well, whether we like it or not, in the modern age of political correctness, there could be a potential lowering of standards to come. Politicians seem to look at the result of equality rather than the process of equality. This can be seen from the existing lower standards women need to join the British Army in general. This threat to the combat effectiveness of the Special Forces was confirmed, when, back in December 2017 both the Telegraph and the Guardian reported that the SAS were considering lowering the entry standards for women by having lighter weight loads to carry and more time to complete tests. This was due to the Government announcing at the time that it wanted all roles in the British Armed Forces to open up to women by 2019.
Another argument is that the risk of women getting pregnant could decrease the operational capability of the Special Forces. Tier 1 operators are usually deployed for long periods of time in harsh environments. Those Tier 1 operators cannot afford a female becoming pregnant and leaving an operation. That female may be in command of the operation, or part of another essential component of its success; thus, the operation may be delayed whilst the other Tier 1 operators fill in the gap. You may believe that it therefore should be a requirement for women to be on a contraceptive implant, but then you would effectively destroy the feminist critique that a woman should oversee her own body and her own rights. There are also general concerns about how a contraceptive implant may affect the behaviour of a female operator on deployment, especially in the high pressure situations that Tier 1 units experience.
Furthermore, women are usually more maternal than men. Thus, are maternal women able to kill child soldiers with a split second to decide? Men could eventually develop mental health problems from doing this, but they are unlikely to hesitate in pulling the trigger. Jordan Peterson, a well-known clinical psychologist, agrees that ‘it is a very rare woman who at the age of 30 doesn’t consider having a child as her primary desire’, suggesting females are more maternal than males at that age. This could decrease the combat effectiveness of Special Forces units which could lead to casualties.
The reality is that Tier 1 operators are especially good at causing maximum destruction to the enemy through controlled aggression. The retired Colonel Richard Kemp wrote that it is more common for men to have a ‘ferocity, aggression and killer instinct’ compared with women. He further responded to this change of policy by the Defence Secretary by saying that it ‘will cost lives’, suggesting that, in his long-serving professional experience, women do not possess, to a significant extent, these qualities of war.
Since lifting the ban on women serving in ground close combat roles for certain regiments in 2016, Anthony Middleton, a former SBS operator turned TV presenter, pointed out that women have not had the chance to prove themselves worthy in this high pressure, male dominated, fighting environment. The Ministry of Defence should analyse the effects of women in close combat roles in regular military regiments before allowing women in Tier 1 Special Forces units. Then any observations can be fully assessed, deciding whether it is necessary to allow women in those Tier 1 units, instead of instinctively following the example of other countries around the world.
Men may also try to be protective of the women alongside them, which could reduce the combat effectiveness of that section. You could argue that men in these units need to be better trained on how to treat women on deployments (as an equal), but there is still a risk this could happen, especially when making a potential decision to leave an operator behind in the field for survival purposes.
Furthermore, the unique Special Forces culture means there could potentially be a rise in general harassment claims by females against male colleagues who currently work in an environment where, for example, heavy drinking and fighting is rumoured to be accepted. Although this culture may not be pleasant for some, this may be what helps make the UK Special Forces arguably the best in the world. Obviously, we don’t want women to feel like they are being harassed. However, at the same time we don’t want to see the Special Forces culture adapted for female participation resulting in unit cohesion becoming eroded, and thereby jeopardising quality.
When it comes to this policy, we must realise that lives are on the line, and with that in mind I am not convinced that we are putting combat effectiveness and operational capability ahead of political correctness. Due to the nature of their work, any equality ruling should not have to apply to the Special Forces, especially Tier 1 units. Therefore, due to the reasons stated, the Ministry of Defence should rethink their policy of allowing female participation in Tier 1 Special Forces units.
Michael Woods
2nd Year BA Politics and Economics
Reading University Debating Journal 