While I understand what you are trying to say, I think that you have overlooked one obvious thing. There aren't many people at all who have the physical and the mental ability to survive solo. It's not just women. While I've heard all of these arguments for women being "the weaker sex" due to genetics or even evolution, I must say, I have to disagree with that argument. I have met many women with the mindset and the physical prowess to survive. In fact, for every man I've met, there is at least one woman. This may be attributable to the area I live in but I do know alot of them that could do it under pressure.

Case in point, the stranded motorist who hiked for help and ended up dead. The woman survived while the man did not. Obviously he made the wrong choice and she made the right one. The ablitiy to maintain mental focus is every bit as important as being able to fell a tree by gnawing on it. You're obviously aware of this since you mentioned the mental aspect of it.

I'm told (I really don't know but it did sound good at the time.) that guard dogs are kept in male female pairs. The male attacks from the front, and the female, having better sense than to go head to head wth a man armed with a pipe, sneaks up from behind while the male is busy showing off for the nice burglar. Like I said I don't know how true this is but it does make sense to me. I was married for 8 very, very long years and my ex loved to ambush me.

Men have a need to prove something that women do not. Women therefore can put their energies into thinking of a solution. While this is not always the case, I have seen men rush headlong into a firestorm while the woman turns on the hose more than once. As far as lowering the standards to allow women to get into the military, that may be true, but that is a fault found with the military and not with the women. The military could easily find women that could pass the tests but they choose to lower the standards so that any whiney little child can get in. When I was in boot camp, I watched girls grab guys by the arm and almost force them to run. Maybe they were joggers beforehand I don't know. I didn't see a single guy help a girl out. This is because the guys were helping the guys out. The girls were helping both. Oh and by the way, there were more physically fit girls in there than there were guys. We all noticed that!

In essence what I'm trying to say is, that statistically you can say that men are stronger than women, but on an individual level, there are as many women who could make it as men. Oh and I'm not talking about those stick figures on TV runways, I don't think they are men or women. They look more like aliens to me.