Women Content in the Army - REFORGER 77 (REF WAC 77)

Abstract : The annual REFORGER (Return of Forces to Germany) exercises in Germany involved one and a half weeks of realistic war games with division-sized forces on each side. The U.S. Forces on one side were transported from one or two installations in the U.S., while the other forces were those already stationed in Germany. The soldiers from the U.S. were absent from their home installations for about six weeks, three weeks of which were under field conditions in Germany. Since some support units on both sides of the REFORGER 77 exercise contained close to 10% women, the Army decided to follow closely the performance of women soldiers and male counterparts who were matched on demographic and personal characteristics. Other comparisons between the matched men and women soldiers related to deployability and to time lost from duty. Results support a conclusion that 10% women has negligible impact on unit performance in a 10 day field exercise for the types of companies tested. Of the 90 Military Occupational Specialties in the 27 participating units 18 were designated as being physically too demanding for women by 50% or more officers or NCO supervisors. A number of leadership and management problems involving women were observed.