I haven't really read the whole thread, but it seems to me that the central issue is muscle mass. Behind muscle mass is, of course, testosterone. Men have more of it, naturally. Of course, there's an overlap at the bottom range for men and the upper range for women, but I'll be surprised if there's enough of an overlap which will allow any woman to qualify, using today's standards. Therefore, as has been said already, the only way to get them in is to lower the standards...
It is muscle mass but especially
upper body muscle mass and women naturally have less than men. Not all women and all men, but on average. Add to that the weight that Ranger students (and infantrymen in combat) must tote and the list of women who can do it shrinks a lot.
The logic of the Christian Science Monitor journalist is pretty flawed. She cites one officer who notes that lots of men leave the service with back problems and says we should just. Array less weight in combat. Perhaps but infantrymen do not tote weight just for the sake of toting weight. They carry stuff they need. My ruck the first time I went to Iraq held ammo, batteries, water and chow (in that order of priority). And it was heavy.
Then again, the CSM journalist notes that on some missions, units opt not to bring their rucks at all. The implication is that any standard that involves carrying heavy loads is invalid because some u its sometimes do not carry heavy loads in camp at. I can assure you, however, that they are not leaving rucks because they are lazy or tired. They are accepting some tactical risk in exchange for some advantage, probably speed.
I wish people who know next to nothing about this would back away and stop trying to make it "fair." Life isn't fair and in combat, our opponents are working overtime to make things as
unfair on our forces as possible. Sometimes the only counterbalancing force for that unfairness is having extremely fit and extremely well-prepared combat forces. If I was a candid IS commander, I'd be saying, "Heck yes,
please lower the standards for your infantry, especially your Rangers. They always give us fits when we tangle with them. We'd appreciate anything you can do to make them less effective."