The jobs which enlisted women performed the worst on the ACFT were mostly in the medical field, mechanics and cooks.Įnlisted men performed the best in special forces with a 100% pass rate. Other jobs with the highest pass rate, but similarly few soldiers in the data, were engineers at 67% and cavalry scouts at 66%. Women with the highest pass rate included civil affairs specialists with an 89% pass rate, though that data only included 45 soldiers. Some women interviewed by over the past year suspect the enlisted-officer divide can be partially attributed to officers having more freedom to work out on their own time and having more money for workout gear, personal trainers and high-quality gyms. 57% of female officers in the National Guard and 49% in the Reserve passed the ACFT during Rand’s study, which compiled scores from 2019 to September 2021. Pass rates among officers are slightly higher with 72% of women passing, compared to 96% of men on active duty.
Only 42% of women in the National Guard and 41% in the Reserve could pass. Researchers at Rand found that only 52% of enlisted active-duty women were able to pass the original design for the ACFT, compared to 92% of men in their congressionally mandated study released Wednesday. and concerns over the retention and recruitment of women crushed that ambition. The force initially sought to create a gender-neutral test and attempted to juggle dueling goals of creating a more inclusive force while also creating a fitter force.īut damning findings from Rand Corp. Steam picked up for Army planners to create a new test around the time when combat arms jobs such as the infantry and cavalry were opened to women in 2015. The APFT, which also had gendered and age-specific scoring, was largely a reaction to the Defense Department dissolving the Women’s Army Corps and integrating women into units with men. The Army has spent a decade thinking up ways to replace the old three-event test, the Army Physical Fitness Test, or APFT, which has been used to measure fitness in the force since 1983. “That was the reason for taking that out we wanted to measure core strength.” “If I don’t have the grip strength, but have the core strength, I can’t do a leg tuck,” Grinston said. Previously, the plank was introduced as an alternative event during the ACFT’s beta phase when it was discovered women were struggling with the leg tucks. Test designers were concerned that the leg tuck doesn’t strictly measure core muscle strength but also requires that a soldier spend a lot of energy on upper-body and grip strength. The rest of the test still includes the deadlift, hand-release pushups, the standing power throw, two-mile run and the sprint, drag, carry. Leg tucks are totally eliminated as the event to measure core strength, with planks taking their place. That minimum run time for male soldiers is a minute longer than the previous version of the ACFT that the Army previously trialed, following data showing the run is by far the most failed event for both genders. In that same age group, female soldiers have to run two miles between 23:22 and 15:29 minutes while male soldiers must perform that exercise between 22 and 13:22 minutes. while a male soldier has to lift between 140 and 340 lbs. For example, a female soldier between 17 and 21 years old now has to deadlift between 120 and 210 lbs.
