Meet the female soldiers proving the case for women on the front line Should women be allowed to serve on the front line of the British Army? "Get down on the floor and give me 100," screamed the man in charge of the latest batch of recruits, hoping to follow in Brenda's and Ashley's footsteps. All of a sudden, one of the young guys just gave up. This led to a command from scary-man-in-charge for everyone to assume the plank position (my least favourite in the gym - for the record I can hold my body up for nearly 60 seconds). He demanded 20 MINUTES. Soon many of this group of tough men were nearly crying. Having been ordered to crawl through a forest the night before, they had some kind of nettle stings all over their battered arms and looked close to breaking. "Nah, they just getting started," Brenda, a mother of one, tells me, shaking her head while chuckling to herself - remembering her time being put through the same hell in the exact same room. Over here, it's not unusual for the young male recruits to have female soldiers as role models for the front line. In Canada men and women are treated fully equally in all parts of the armed forces. But at home, in the UK, it's a different story. Right now the US military is preparing to allow women to serve in combat roles for the first time. This is following the groundbreaking decision at the start of this year by Leon Panetta, the then US secretary of defence, to allow women to serve on the front line. What's the deal in the UK? However, in the UK, the Ministry of Defence still maintains the ban and isn't compelled to review it until 2018. The last review in 2010 returned "inconclusive" results about the desirability of allowing women the chance to compete for their spot at the coalface of war. It's an increasingly lonely position that the UK finds itself in. Most major militaries around the world allow it - from Australia to France, Germany to South Africa and Israel to America. And from 2017, the Brazilian Army are also allowing women into the final military all-boys club. Over the last few months, for a BBC Radio 4 documentary, I have been trying to find out why the UK has stuck to this position and learn if any of the old arguments which maintain women cannot join their army brothers on the front line, still hold in 2013. I travelled to Canada, one of our closest allies, to find out exactly how it works in practice, as Canadian women have been serving in these ground close combats roles for more than 20 years. What I learned, from speaking to both men and women, who have served together on the front line, is pretty simple: the UK is painfully out of date. Not only that, but the male Canadian infantry officers, who opened up a lot more once we were away from the base and in a pub, find it patronising that our country continue to disallow women entry into these units. When military men find something patronising against women, you know there's a real problem. The arguments against women fighting on the front line are pretty tired and well-known: women lack the physical power; they would threaten unit cohesion; men would try and protect them; it's too risky for men and women to be in such close quarters (from a sexual and relationship point of view) and (my personal favourite) the frontline is just not a "place fit for a woman." Let them at it However, as both Brenda and Ashley, said to me many times during my few days in Canada, why not let the women want to try, try? Don't lower the barrier for entry for female candidates. Consequently, only the very best women will get through. "If you have one standard and the individuals that are trying out for your team meet that one standard, then the argument is essentially null and void," explains Ashley calmly. Some of the women that I have seen in the combat arms are more fit than most of the men, and vice versa. She also informs me that she's lugged 15-stone men around in battle scenarios. Mental note - do not mess with Ashley - who promptly takes me to the local whiskey night later on that day. Contrary to inaccurate stereotypes, neither Ashley or Brenda are "unfeminine." On the contrary, both are proud to be women and haven't "manned up" despite serving shoulder to shoulder with men in cramped quarters for months on end. Fighting force: women from the US 1st Cavalry on a patrol in Iraq But what about the social cohesion fear? Well here's the irony. At first the Canadian Army built separate units for the female members of the infantry. But guess what - letting them live and sleep separately, stopped the units from bonding. So they were then all thrown in together. Believe me - the living quarters are pretty tight. Six beds a room is the general pattern at Meaford. I can't imagine what it's like during a tour. But as with every situation, humans develop patterns to make things work. For instance, Ashley and Brenda are now experts at getting changed inside cupboards on base and sleeping bags when out on tour. There also have become adept at handling that time of the month too. Sorry - but I had to ask. They are female loos on base - but your platoon forming a circle around you in the desert is more how it goes when you need to go or do anything in that region - when you are out in a war zone. I also laugh out loud when I learn that female soldiers used to be issued with a one size fits all bra by the Canadian military when they signed up. Needless to say that nonsense soon stopped when women finally rose up the ranks. One bra that fits all women? You having a laugh? Brenda tells me it wasn't ideal. Instead there's now a special (very small) bra allowance - which I reliably informed the men are most jealous of and would love an equivalent for some all-fighting boxers. But what about the fighting and physical side of things? Away from the practicalities of passing the course, living with loads of men and taking the "daily banter" on the chin, are women any different when firing a gun? It's Brenda's response about what it felt like to first return fire in Afghanistan that sums it up best for me: "I felt natural, it felt like I was supposed to be doing this. You know because at that moment it's you against them, right? They're firing at you, so there's no real hesitation about what you're doing. And that's just it. It all comes back to the amazingly tough and thorough training all those who make it onto the front line receive. Brenda was trained expressly to survive and thrive in a war zone. Returning fire should feel natural after the brutal training regime she was put through. Annoyingly there were no women in the new batch of recruits I watched get beasted within an inch of their lives. I have never seen anything quite like it. Whether you are called Brenda or Bob, if you make it through the intense training, you deserve your spot. I left Canada in shock to be honest. Having watched only a few hours of the preparation each recruit goes through, I have no idea why any man or woman would want to fight on the front line - although I am bloody grateful that they do. Yes, very few women still get through in Canada - but relatively few even try out. After 20 years of the ban being lifted, women still only make up about 2.5 per cent - that's just one in 40 - fo the Canadian Army's combat arms. And then you have examples like Ashley's training unit, where all the drop-outs were men. So when will the UK take the plunge? According to Nicky Moffat, who until last year was a Brigadier and the British Army's most senior female officer, there will never be a good time. But pressure is growing from international precedent and senior figures across Labour, Liberal Democrat and the SNP. Jim Murphy, the Shadow Defence Secretary, until yesterday's reshuffle, told me: "From what I can sense, the very best women in our armed forces are as remarkable as the very best men and they should be given that chance if they meet the criteria. My time in Canada proved to me that the UK really has nothing to worry about. Yes, there will be teething problems but we can learn so much from our allies - especially America - taking the plunge right now. However, the UK delay does seem to be more down to a fear of the one last all-boys club changing its culture. As Nicky tells me: "I think probably the one remaining issue that would need to be addressed is the issue of culture within the combat arms. The infantry and armoured corps, just like the other cap badges [areas] of the Army prior to allowing women to serve, has been used to being an all-male club, and in lifting the ban, those cap badges will need to look long and hard at their culture and to identify how best to accommodate difference. Ashley reckons serving on the front line is just like being in a band of brothers (and sisters), she confided over my sixth whiskey in her local. For the record, I matched her drink for drink.