What is your advice for Females joining the ranks of the combat jobs in the Military?

Tell them, it'll do one of two things. Make them, or break them. If they can't, or aren't willing to lug a 150lbs pack, 50lbs worth of ammo, a 25 lbs weapon, and still be able to lug a 200 lbs soldier (in my case Marine), then don't do it. Otherwise, best of luck.

Hit the gym. Pushups, Situps, Pullups, moving lunges. Weight training. Start hiking with a weighted pack.

I would advise to be prepared for stress fractures. When I was a TAC officer at OCS at Fort Benning the vast majority of injuries suffered by female candidates were from stress fractures in the legs and pelvic regions incurred from runs and road marches. As I recall stress fractures were one of the major reasons for female candidates to fail the course and if I recall correctly the continuing complications from stress fractures were a contributing factor in causing female officers to leave service earlier than their male counterparts. Twelve and sixteen mile timed road marches with full combat loads and five mile runs in under 40 minutes as a unit (I can recall the company running as a thundering heard on the streets at Fort Benning) can produce devastating and long lasting (permanent)injuries. I recall on numerous occasions with the five classes I was a TAC with the company marching in formation to Building 4 and trailing the main formation was a smaller formation of female candidates limping along suffering from stress fractures. So my advice would be if the standards as they are remain in place and are observed, be prepared for stress fractures which can be so severe as to cripple one's career.

My advice, like so many others here, is for these young women to concentrate on the job at hand and be "team" minded.
I have more advice for the NCOIC's. It is your job to develop each soldier into a team player and an asset. Do your job and they will do theirs. I speak from experience having been in charge of a Navy squadron Avionics Division with 40% female techs. I knew the composition and the prejudices the women had been dealing with before I took charge. My first act as SCPOIC (Senior Chief Petty Officer In charge) was to assemble the supervisors and all the women in my office and tell them the days of the women doing 120% to get the same evaluations as the men were over. I explained that we were there to keep the aircraft flying, maybe more but certainly nothing less and that's all I cared about. Anything that got in the way of that goal was going to be dealt with. During my three year tour there the young women did an exceptional job. Perhaps they had to accomplish a job task a little differently than some of the men such as installing a 100 lb generator on an aircraft engine but they got the job done. And after the guys got over the "women don't belong in aircraft maintenance attitude" that had been instilled in them by their previous supervisors we had a division second to none.

Coming from a line unit that I currently serve in, if they can do their job without asking for special treatment. If they can accept that they will be judged on if they can do everything that the males soldiers do, a course with some limitations. Then they should be fine.

Why do we want to expose an additional group to combat? We do not send very young or very old people there is no need to expose woman. When any enemy lands on our shores then everybody gets a gun but just to expose woman to combat so they can be equally killed and wounded makes no sense. I will not even address the host of other reasons already discussed at various times. We do not need 16 year old boys or 65 year old men. Germany did in WW 2 but that was an act of desperation. I am glad woman have babies but I would not want to have to go thru that experience.
Unless we are all robots we are not going to be equal, some are stronger some are more intelligent
so trying to give woman the mind set that they really need to be in a combat position to be "equal"
is not only stupid but harmful to woman, men and the Army. John Dorsey COL, IN, Ret Viet Nam 67-68

Be worthy. Give this everything you have. Take no favors, give no excuses. If you fail, do so moving forward (or trying to) with your head up. This will test you in ways you cannot imagine. The rewards are commensurate with the test.

I have worked with both male and female Soldiers, and have had both good and bad. They just need to keep motivated and strive to be the best.

These soldiers will have their work cut out for them, not only as Combat Arms, but dealing with the biased individuals that will do their best to make their life miserable. I fervently hope that you brief them that the Chain of Command is REQUIRED to support her and insure that they are equally treated. They need to be aware that the road ahead will be rougher for them until they prove themselves. Can't sugar coat the realities of what they are getting into. This is the best advice I can offer them and they have all my support.

The biggest thing I would recommend is encouraging them to work towards meeting the same standards, by meeting the same standard as the males on a team, female team members can earn more respect and prove that old stereotypes are not a good way to measure expectations for our soldiers. Bottom line is if they can do the job and want the job they should have the option.