US army course pits women against men

Women in the US army have frequently faced objections that they cannot handle the physical demands of combat.

But one army trainee course is pitting women against men, the only such course to be offered for both. More than a third of the women who have taken the combat engineer leadership course since 1999 have graduated.

The failure rate, around 40 percent, has been the same for both sexes.

Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan reports from Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.