Hand-grip strength of young men, women and highly trained female athletes. - PubMed - NCBI
Sure.
Specifically pages 415 to 421.
I can cite multiple further sources for the massive psychomotor advantages that males possess over females.
Two matters;
1) Black women have testosterone levels and psychomotor ability closer to the average man than any other race.
2) I have no idea why those countries are undertaking such a foolhardy symbol of 'progress' but the fact that they are does not indicate that India should too.
Affordability certainly is one of the factors that discount women's ability to contribute towards fighter missions. Sure out of every 200 male candidates for fighter pilots that make it in, there may be a few women that also make the cut. However in order to situate these women in the hierarchy of the organisation, massive investment will need to be made in everything from accommodation/sizing of seats/re-training medical staff/etc.
Then there is the fact that women tend to spend less time in a profession than men. Far less. They take more leave, get pregnant, work less hours and can cause emotional strife in a primarily male workforce. It is simply uneconomical by any definition of the word.
The fact that is even being argued is only a further indicator of how far we have fallen from a society that values logic over all. Feels over reals as they say.
For one thing, the testosterone levels in the body has nothing to do with abilities as a fighter pilot. If you are trying to link testosterone and aggression and flying abilities, that is rather tenous. I would say the samee for grip strength too, I'm not sure how that translates into a better fighter piloting ability - how much strength does one need to handle a throttle and stick anyway?
I would agree about the economics with respect to female foot soldiers, or army officers in combat branches. Too few women would qualify to justify a separate investment for women. But there are women serving in the signals, engineering and similar regiments, where their abilities are on par with male officers. (Gathering SIGINT, for example.)
Here is why affordability is not really important for fighter pilots - how many fighter pilots are there in the first place? Not a million, like the army's soldiers. The number is in the few thousands. Maybe even lesser, since we are only talking about fighter pilots. The total number of fighter aircrafts we have is around 650. In a given airbase, how many personnel are fighter pilots, and how many are ground crew, technicians etc? Having a couple of women fighter pilots does not add any economic burden, because no separate training, housing etc has to be creaed for them. (Remember that there are women officers and non-fighter pilots already.)
Flying fighter jets is the job of a very few. Having one or two women among ten or so men fighter pilots in a base with a few hundred other officers and airmen is not a problem. If transport pilots, helicopter pilots etc are already living there, why can't a fighter pilot or two?
So, to sum up:
1) Flying fighter jets is more about flying the machine and operating all the sensors and electronics, and not about pure physical strength. There is no reason why a physically fit woman cannot do it. As opposed to an army soldier who has to carry 20 kg of combat load and go on patrols.
2) In an airbase that has women officers, adding one or two women fighter pilots doesn't hurt, or cost money. Unlike adding a woman's battalion in a brigade.
2) I have no idea why those countries are undertaking such a foolhardy symbol of 'progress' but the fact that they are does not indicate that India should too.
1) It's not about "progress" - it's about equal opportunity for equally talented people, especially when it does not cause other economic burdens.
2) If you have no idea why those countries are doing something, and given the fact that it isn't just those countries, but a lot more, maybe you are missing something that they aren't? The list of countries that allow women fighter pilots is quite large, and includes rich, middle income and poor countries, Christian/secular and muslim countries. If so many countries, many of which are not known for "progress" in these matters (UAE for example), have allowed fighter pilots, then maybe there is more to it than meets the eye, wouldn't you say?