Seen as a barrier to the rise of women in the military, physical strength is less and less essential in the modern, increasingly strategic context of war. In Brazil, they are limited to a few areas.
(DW) For a long time, the spaces occupied by female military personnel in the Brazilian Armed Forces were limited to care functions, such as nurses, dentists and doctors, or to assisting and administrative positions. Their entry into the military and into leadership positions is recent, and their presence is still low and marked by limitations. Figures from 2022 show that they represent 11% of the Navy and only 6% of the Army. The Air Force has the largest female contingent, making up 20% of the force.
The country has an emblematic pioneer in combat: Maria Quitéria de Jesus, the young woman who disguised herself as a man to fight against the Portuguese empire. However, more than two hundred years later, the army is still a place of pioneers. It was only in 2012 that Law No. 12.705 was passed, which opened the way for women to take courses at the Agulhas Negras Military Academy (AMAN), a school that allows them to reach the rank of officer.
The first female students entered the Army Cadet Preparatory School in 2017 and graduated from AMAN in 2021. However, certain barriers remain. Currently, women can specialize in Intendance, a sector that manages supplies and materials, in the Military Material Board, which is responsible for maintaining resources such as weapons and vehicles, and, as of this year, in Communications. The Cavalry, Infantry, Artillery and Engineering sectors remain barred.
In addition, most of the Forces’ competitions have a limited number of vacancies for women. In AMAN’s selection process, only 10% of the vacancies can be filled by future cadets, meaning that the candidate/vacancy ratio for women is more than three times that of men. Of the 400 students who enter each year, only 40 can be women.
Brazil is not at the forefront
There are around 20 countries in the world that have removed all restrictions on women serving as combatants in their armed forces. Canada, Norway and Sweden allowed women to serve on the front line in the 1980s. Germany allowed equal access to all weapons and specialties in 2001.
In Latin America, Uruguay allowed women to join the ranks of commanders of all forces in 2000, which also became a reality in Paraguay in 2003 and Argentina in 2013. Bolivia, Colombia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Chile also allow full access to the military. The country in the region with the highest proportion of women in the armed forces is Chile (17.5%).
Last year, the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) filed three lawsuits with the Supreme Court seeking to allow women access to all military careers, arguing that 100% of the vacancies available in recruitment competitions should be contested without distinction as to gender. In response, the army claimed that “female physiology can compromise military performance in combat operations, depending on the operational environment”. In January of this year, the Federal Attorney General’s Office (AGU) took a stand against the lawsuits and in favor of the current restrictions, corroborating the Army’s argument.
For many, women and combat are incompatible. The main belief is that less physical strength would compromise the performance of activities at the front. In addition, misconceptions about the biology of the female body combined with gender stereotypes make up social barriers for women in the field. Does the argument of inadequate physiology hold up?
The question of strength and operational training
The physical fitness tests carried out regularly in the army have different rates for men and women. This is what the director of the Army’s Physical Training Research Institute, Lieutenant Colonel Hélio Gonçalves Chagas de Macedo, explains. “In some activities, such as running, swimming and weightlifting, we can see that there is a difference between men and women. In the cardiorespiratory part, it’s calculated that women can do 80% of what men do”.
However, the director stresses that these are standard figures that don’t always reflect reality and can vary according to each demand.
There are four types of test that make up these physical assessment tests: a 12-minute run, push-ups on the bar, push-ups on the floor and abdominal crunches. In this way, a man runs 3km, and a woman of the same age runs around 2.5km. The lieutenant colonel points out that these differences do not have an impact on the work carried out by the military, since the objective and evaluation criterion is for everyone to deliver 100% of their capacity. “If everyone trains to the best of their ability, when it comes to making decisions in combat, women will be able to perform their tasks. It’s not just a physiological issue. It’s possible to separate the duties, ensuring that each individual contributes to their full potential.”
In addition, a more modern version of military training and assessment is based on the fulfillment of specific and objective tasks, in which the objectives and parameters are the same for both sexes.
“The US Army and the British Army, for example, have already migrated from athletics-based tests to physical-operational tests. An example of such a test is simulating carrying a wounded man. These are exercises that meet the military task and are the same for men and women”. These tests are already used in the Brazilian Army, but not as an admission test or assessment in schools. “We’re trying to keep up with this modernization,” says Macedo.
Solid preparation and successful performance
“Both sexes are treated equally and the challenges are the same,” says Colonel Ana Luiza Ferrão, who is responsible for monitoring the female gender in the military education line at AMAN. She points out that the integration of the first classes has been successful, without any setbacks.
“We go to camps and simulate war. We carry the same weight of rucksack, rifle and material as the men, we perform the same duties,” says Cíntia Silva Vidigal. The 27-year-old was part of the first female class to graduate from AMAN in 2021 and returned to the institution as a lieutenant-instructor for the basic course.
Cíntia specialized in the Intendance weapon and reports that, although some weapons are still not open to women, sometimes the roles are mixed. “The Brazilian army’s military officer base is common to all,” says the instructor, who feels well prepared to take on leadership positions.
The challenges are independent of gender. Colonel Macedo notes that women’s teams have a higher rate of lower limb injuries than men, but that the institution must always be aware of the health and risks for both sexes. “Many young people arrive practically sedentary”.
Modern warfare and the secondary role of brute force
Gender stereotypes and prejudices are being overcome for various reasons. One is that the relevance of brute force to service is diminishing. “The concept of war has changed. Today it is no longer trench warfare. Combat requires intelligence and the ability to operate state-of-the-art technology,” points out Minister of the Superior Military Court, Maria Elizabeth Rocha.
“Brute force is increasingly being mitigated by new forms of warfare. A woman may find it difficult to keep up in a trench carrying a 40 kg rucksack on her back compared to a man. But she is very capable of commanding a drone.”
She also points out that several armed forces around the world have found relatively simple solutions that have enabled women to rise in the ranks. “The American army, for example, has adapted weapons to the female body.”
For the minister, there are a number of false assumptions about the body that hinder women’s entry into certain positions. “Women combatants are still seen as the weaker sex, who can’t join the army because they are more delicate, more sensitive than men. This is a fallacy and to lose a female workforce is to lose a portion of society.”
A right and mark of citizenship
“The armed forces are still strongholds of masculinity,” says Justice Maria Elizabeth, who is also the only woman to hold the position in the history of the country’s oldest court. “Although integration is increasing, there is still a sexual marker, especially for those boys who are in compulsory military service. Men serve, women don’t.”
The magistrate also points out that gender often has an impact in the form of structural discrimination, which is done unconsciously.
When asked by DW, the Army did not point to women’s physiology as an obstacle, nor did it give any examples of duties performed by male officers that female officers would find difficult to fulfill. The institution’s emphasis was on the need to make gradual changes and evaluate their impact.
It also pointed out that allowing women to take part in the AMAN competition would require adaptations to the infrastructure, such as the construction of accommodation, which would come up against the budget. “We are working on the insertion in a gradual, continuous and safe manner, thus avoiding mistakes that have already been made in other armed forces abroad,” said the institution.
The minister, on the other hand, believes that the change should be faster. “Limiting the entry of women to 10% is unconstitutional. Calmer? Our patience has run out. There is no need to talk about a gradual process when there is a breach of the constitutional norm.”
*** Translated by DEFCONPress FYI Team ***