Try to keep any kind of evaluation out of this. So the marine corps has done a bunch of different studies and research. They began with a actually, they began with the infantry officer course which they opened to women in 2012 and asked for volunteers. Women, if you want to come to try out the infantry officer course, youre invited to attend. At the same time that they were doing that, they also began developing a set of combat proxy tests. The combat proxy test, they were six largely upper body based i should say Upper Body Strength based proxy tests that they evaluated the performance of 409 women and 379 female marines against and what they found from this combat proxy test was that about well not about, but 66 of the very good performers were men and 34 were women, and then the highest performing categories, it was 92 were men and 8 were women. So this initial Screening Test that they developed showed that there was certainly a percentage of women that fell into the good and the ve
I should have asked how many civilians were in the audience. Yes, excellent. [laughter] host it is no exaggeration to say there is a wealth of knowledge and experience in this room, and thats why were going to try to make this more of a conversation than a series of presentations. Were looking forward to that. This discussion is really about the central question of unit cohesion and leadership. In the battlefield, especially in the close fight. We have with us four people that i think provide a great perspective across the board. Dr. Megan mckenzie from the university of sydney. Shes a senior lecturing in the government. The center for International Security at the university of sydney. Research crosses gender studies , Security Studies and , international development. Shes published in top journals, including Security Studies. Her first book, female soldiers in sierra leone, and the newest book, beyond the military and myth women cant fight, debunks ss the belief that women cant fight
Moment. But before that, i want for talk about social issues for a second. But again when we started covering politics, social issues were murder for democrats. Now theyre offensive weapons. I want you to look at where this is headed and think ten years in the future, will gay marriage be legal in every state and will marijuana be legal in every state. Wow. Let me get there indirectly. You look at surveys of millennial voters. Youll see theyre not like their older siblings or parents in the sense that theyre not antigovernment like conservative, but not pro government like liberals. But very skeptical government. Because their Life Experience has been that government hasnt functioned well. They have seen dysfunctional democratic government, they have seen dysfunctional republican governments. P so the thing is for republicans, you can say, gee, republicans could have a fair shot at them. But in generation is also very libertarian. And i dont think we need two liberal parties. But if re