Physically the woman's body does not have anywhere close to the muscle mass a man's body has.
Its just how the female and male bodies evolved. Cant do much about it.
Now, that there are women that can beat the stuffing out of a man yes. However, we would be talking about an extra-ordinary woman beating up an average man.
Im talking sheer strength, not judo or whatnot training.
Combat roles for a woman, in my opinion, would be all except for the ground foot soldier role. Women are at par with men as pilots, sailors, tank crews, etc. But when it comes to picking up several dozen pounds of gear and fighting with that hanging from their backs, the average male has a significant advantage over the average female.
BTW, ask your Israeli friend if women in the israeli army are front line combat troops. Ive met many fascinating israeli ladies, one of them was even an officer in the infantry, and theyve all told me they would not be allowed into ground combat as foot soldiers unless it was absolutely neccessary. This officer girl would tell me that while she didnt feel she would underperform a male officer, she agreed that when push came to shove, a male officer would be more effective FIGHTING (not leading) than she would.
All I can say is that if I were 18 and were assigned as a rifleman in a unit and we had one or 2 girls in the unit, their presence would very likely distract me a lot (hormones, nothing you can do about that), and if in combat one of them got hurt, my morale would drop a ****load more than if one of the guys got hit.
