Right. So let me chime in on this, because my profession has been leading the charge in this area for a little while now.
I'm military.
We started out with "Women have no place in combat." which for the longest time was seen as self-evident truth. Then it was decided to trial women in Combat Arms trades, and we discovered that actually, no, there is no reason why women cannot function (and even excel!) in combat arms trades. *Individual* women may not be suited for it, but that is equally true of men as well. There is nothing systemic about your genitalia that disqualifies you from being able to perform in combat.
This is now, in our Army at least, considered a "solved problem". We tried it, we tested it, and none of the apocalyptic scenarios widely predicted came to pass. The is *no issue here*. (And incidentally, we went through the same thing with homosexuality - with the same result. No issue.)
So that was Phase 1.
Phase 2 was about how soldiers treat each other, specifically with regards to sexual misconduct. Some stuff happened, a study was commissioned, and we discovered we had two issues to address: the first was soldiers acting in inappropriate manners toward each other; the second was "bystander effect" witnesses not coming forward to report offenses when observed. Interestingly, the *prevalence* of this behavior was at or slightly lower than that seen in society at large, but the leadership take on the issue was that soldiers are held to a higher behavioral standard (as befits citizens entrusted with the power to kill) and so *any* occurrence was too much. Training was designed and delivered (and I have to say that it was very even-handed. It didn't pick on any specific gender or orientation and it reinforced that *everyone* was to be held to the same standard).
We're still in this phase, but since the problem was identified and the training delivered, I've seen with my own eyes (more often, heard with my own ears) significant progress being made. Now that the training has been rolled out and everyone has gotten it, whatever sense there might have been that this was just "SJW running wild" has dissipated, and I think it's fair to say that the entire Army has bought in to the idea that this is just common sense stuff that duly needed to be underscored. I imagine that in 5 years or so it will be as fully integrated to Army culture as the gender equality of combat arms trades is now.
Phase 3 is on the horizon (the Government has started talking about it) and that is about percentages - basically "we don't have enough women in the Army and we want to see the numbers come up.".
This one is tricky. Phase 1 was basically "Don't exclude anyone just because of their gender/orientation - given them the same chance to succeed/fail as any other gender/orientation". Phase 2 was "Don't mistreat your comrades, and if you witness mistreatment, report it". Those are, in retrospect, no-brainers.
Phase 3 requires an honest assessment of the recruiting, training, and force-employment process to see if there are any factors involved with those processes that are unjustly interfering with those processes based on gender/orientation, and if there are, eliminating them. It does *not* mean lowering standards or imposing quotas *at all* - just examining our recruiting/production/retention processes to see if there are any biases that should be eliminated, which I think is worthy work.
I'm not sure that we can meet the percentages that the Government wants, because ultimately, women have to *want* to become part of this career, and I'm not entirely sure that "desire to join the Army and fight" is gender-neutral. But to *presuppose* that is to miss the point entirely, so it behooves us to carry out the analysis.
I see this as key terrain for the Army, not a waste of time - because the military of any democracy must reflect the composition and values of the nation that supports it. Citizens must be able to look at their Army and see a reflection of themselves - and ideally, an aspirational refection of who they'd want to be. If the citizenry looks at their Army and sees "the other"; something that "isn't them" then they lose trust in the institution sworn to protect them, and that *cannot* happen.
While this process hasn't been particularly "fun", I see nothing but upside for the institution. The juice has been worth the squeeze. I expect the rest of society will catch on eventually.
