Gender Issues

The growing number of women in the armed forces--some in physically demanding jobs--has been accompanied by debate over fundamental issues, including whether the military's fitness standards are fair and appropriate to both sexes. Significant differences exist in the tests and standards that the military services use to measure physical fitness. Specifically, the services do not always adhere to Defense Department (DOD) guidance for fitness testing or, in some cases, interpreted the guidance differently. Adjustments to account for physiological differences by age and gender are, according to experts, appropriate for general fitness and health standards, and DOD guidance requires that gender-based adjustments be made. Although each of the services adjusts for gender, the degree of adjustment varies considerably. Inconsistent and sometimes arbitrary approaches to adjusting the standards have contributed to questions about the fairness of the standards applied to military men and women. Body fat standards are also questionable because of (1) differences in each service's equation for estimating body fat, resulting in estimates ranging between 27 and 42 percent for the same woman; (2) outdated measurement approaches that did not account for racial differences in bone density; and (3) changes in ethnicity and other population characteristics of the military that question whether the populations used to develop the equations represent today's military. Moreover, despite a clear requirement that all services test all personnel regardless of age, the Navy and, until recently, the Marine Corps, have exempted older personnel from fitness testing for years because of concerns about being able to retain senior leaders. DOD's guidance and oversight of the service physical fitness programs have been inadequate.

GAO noted that: (1) significant differences exist in the tests and standards that the military services use to measure physical fitness; (2) these differences reflect varying levels of difficulty in required performance in all testing areas--cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength and endurance, and percentage of allowable body fat--and occurred for different reasons; (3) specifically, services did not always adhere to DOD guidance for fitness testing or, in some cases, interpreted the guidance differently; (4) service officials stated that confusion over the program's objectives, stemming from conflicting statements in DOD's guidance, contributed to differences among the services; (5) adjustments to account for physiological differences by age and gender are, according to experts, appropriate for general fitness and health standards, and DOD guidance requires that gender-based adjustments be made; (6) although each of the services adjusts for gender, the degree of adjustment varies considerably; (7) inconsistent and sometimes arbitrary approaches to adjusting the standards have contributed to questions concerning the fairness of the standards applied to military men and women; (8) body fat standards are also questionable due to: (a) differences in each service's equations for estimating body fat, resulting in estimates ranging between 27 and 42 percent for the same woman; (b) outdated measurement approaches that did not account for racial differences in bone density; and (c) changes in ethnicity and other population characteristics of the current military that question whether the populations used to develop the equations represent the populations in today's military; (9) despite a clear requirement for all services to test all personnel regardless of age, the Navy and, until recently the Marine Corps, have exempted older personnel from fitness testing for years because of concerns about being able to retain senior leaders; (10) DOD's guidance and oversight of the service physical fitness programs are not adequate; (11) multiple program objectives and lack of DOD monitoring of service compliance with key policies, have persisted since at least the early 1980s without resolution; (12) DOD has not enforced annual reporting requirements or identified a common set of statistics to use in monitoring the services' fitness programs; (13) the statistics currently maintained by the services lack standardization; and (14) the limited data available raise questions about program effectiveness because failure rates appear to be markedly different among the services and women appear to fail at significantly higher rates than men.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone: