Most armies in the West are having enough trouble recruiting capable men to fill their ranks, and now the British Army has decided to up the ante:

The head of the Army is considering scrapping centuries-old ranks such as Rifleman and Guardsman because they are masculine.

In an attempt to make regiments more inclusive, General Sir Patrick Sanders is poised to break hundreds of years of battlefield tradition.

Yes, yes, the problem with His Majesty's Armed Forces is that the word "rifleman" isn't sufficiently inclusive. That's what's holding those Brits back from their full military capabilities.

Actually this change appears to be the end result of a pretty typical sort of gender-based approach to personnel management, namely: (a) Set unreasonable female recruitment goals for historically male-dominated professions; (b) fail to meet those goals; (c) decide that the problem isn't that women don't want to do these jobs, it's that the jobs themselves are sexist:

The Army's recent failures to meet female representation targets has also convinced senior officers they must do much more.

Sir Patrick said: 'If you want to tap into people's potential, people have to feel they can be themselves.'

Unless they're a Rifleman, I guess!