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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   13602 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 17, 2025

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Large percentage? Extreme doubt, source please. What percentage of the soldiers in the Soviet military were women? Not cooks and nurses, soldiers. And of those, what percent of soldiers who actually saw combat were women?

Israelis

As I understand it, most women are given homeguard duties, it is very rare that they actually go out and fight. Of all the Israelies who have fired a weapon in combat in the last 20 years, what percent have been women?

Out of ~400k trained sharpshooters there were 2,500 female ones who mostly did quite well. 500 survived the war. I remember remarks how women are good at being sneaky and patient from period memoirs.

There were about 20-30 female armor crewmen, mostly achieved that through being insanely persistent. E.g. donates enough money for an entire tank, writes letter to Stalin to be allowed to fight. Or a tractor driver (tractors were often tracked then) whose husband was drafted and whose children died convinced an army doctor to pass her off as male in paperwork, then went on to have some success as a tank driver

About 400 women served as combat pilots.

About 40% of medics and radio operators were women, and later in the war (43 onwards) the % of women involved in frontline air defense was very high, often up to 50%.

I recall reading that 12% of Soviet military pilots were women at the start of the war, actually.

Never read anything in that vein. If that were true you'd expect a lot more female aces in Soviet Air force. There were only 2 female aces who shot down more than five planes each in WW2..

<Steve Sailer waggles eyebrows>

I can imagine women might be at a disadvantage in complex maneuvers, but the main difference between aces and dead guys was really sharp eyes and paying attention, with proper tactics they could have been quite successful. You don't really want to get in turn fight furballs and people with high scores generally didn't do so.

There just weren't many women involved.

Of all the Israelies who have fired a weapon in combat in the last 20 years, what percent have been women?

A number of the hostages in Gaza were female IDF soldiers, but I have no clue how many of those actually fired a weapon.

To quote our bluntly rude President: "I like people who weren’t captured."

Back in March I read many of the accounts in the 7 October Parliamentary Commission Report which attempted to document all recorded attacks of the day. Based on that, a common role for female IDF women kidnapped or killed on October 7th were in listening or surveillance outposts along the border. There were at least a couple instances of women (and men, too) holing up in a command post or signals room while others put up resistance waiting for relief. I got the vibe that the border gals weren't really expected to engage in combat if it could be avoided. Of those that had a chance to react they were placed in last stand territory. They were not, generally, put out to defend the wire.

Is the genocide of Gaza a result of DEI ...? Put women on border guard duty, border isn't defended effectively, therefore, must entirely genocide your neighbor... Now there is a hot take ... but is it wrong?

Hard to see how it's the female soldiers' fault that Israel can't forever eat the costs of Iron Doming the water pipe missiles from Gaza without doing something about the people who launch the missiles.

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