Thursday, April 04, 2013

Some statistics for those who advocate women in combat

Vox has helpfully provided a link to the further success of the Obama administration to get women into combat.  How well will they do?

Well, four of four women who have attempted the initial test on entry to combat infantry school have failed, and in the most recent class, 96 of 108 men in the class passed.  Here is the statistical comparison:

Sample X N Sample p
1 12 108 0.111111

2 4 4 1.000000

Difference = p (1) - p (2)

Estimate for difference: -0.888889

95% CI for difference: (-0.948159, -0.829618)

Test for difference = 0 (vs not = 0): Z = -29.39 P-Value = 0.000

* NOTE * The normal approximation may be inaccurate for small samples.

Fisher's exact test: P-Value = 0.000
In other words, even with cherry-picked candidates and a mandate to try to make things work, it is certain that female officers are a statistically different group from Marine infantry officers.  Hoping that the Obama administration will get a clue and back off from this policy that might get a bunch of good men and women killed?

Dream on.  The Corps is going to study this until 2016, after which Mr. Obama conveniently hands this stink-bomb off to his successor.

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