in World News ‘It changes right now!’ Watch Pete Hegseth order equal standards for men and women in combat roles
By Wallace White, Daily Caller News Foundation
‘For far too long, we have allowed standards to slip’
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will issue a memo setting equal standards for men and women in combat roles across the armed services, he announced on X Monday.
The memo aims to implement the same set of standards for all service members involved in combat, regardless of sex, Hegseth said on X. Hegseth said the services would review the guidance to ensure the “highest and equal standards for men and women in combat.”
“For far too long, we have allowed standards to slip,” Hegseth said in his post. “We’ve had different standards for men/women serving in combat arms [Military Occupational Specialty] MOS’s and jobs…. That’s not acceptable, and it changes right now!”
For far too long, we have allowed standards to slip. We’ve had different standards for men/women serving in combat arms MOS’s and jobs….
That’s not acceptable, and it changes right now! pic.twitter.com/Zn9OyBew6G
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) March 31, 2025
Men and women currently have different standards for combat roles, with the U.S. Army deciding to make different standards for men and women in the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) in 2022 after the RAND Corporation found in a study that women failed the test at much higher rates than their male counterparts; 65% of women were failing the ACFT test at one point in 2021, which prompted the change in standards.