
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 19, 1995                   TAG: 9501190100
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

GINGRICH: WOMEN OK FOR COMPUTER COMBAT, BUT NOT DITCHES

Women aren't meant for traditional military combat because ``females have biological problems staying in a ditch for 30 days.'' But they might outdo men at missile computers because males ``are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes.''

Newt Gingrich's college course is supposed to be about history, but the new House speaker digressed a bit recently to give his views on what separates the sexes.

The comments are from his first ``Renewing American Civilization'' lecture since the Georgia Republican took over as speaker.

Since the changing of the guard in Congress, Democrats and other Gingrich opponents have been hanging on every Gingrich word, looking not only for the direction Republicans will take but also for controversy.

So after obtaining a videotape of Gingrich's Jan.7 class - three days after he became speaker - a resourceful Gingrich critic made a transcript and distributed it to reporters.

Some nuggets:

``We know [what] personal strength meant in the neolithic: You carried a big club and you had a rock. What does personal strength mean in the age of the laptop? Which, by the way, is a major reason for the rise in the power of women. If upper body strength matters, men win. They are both biologically stronger and they don't get pregnant.

``Pregnancy is a period of male domination in traditional society. On the other hand, if what matters is the speed by which you can move the laptop, women are at least as fast and in some ways better. So you have a radical revolution based on technological change and you've got to think that through. If you talk about being in combat, what does combat mean?

``If combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for 30 days because they get infections and they don't have upper body strength. ... On the other hand, if combat means being on an Aegis class cruiser managing the computer controls for 12 ships and their rockets, a female may again be dramatically better than a male who gets very, very frustrated sitting in a chair all the time because males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes.''

Gingrich, according to the transcript, isn't averse to poking a little fun at his part-time profession: ``Right-wing academics are as dumb as left-wing academics.''

This course is televised live as part of Mind Extension University, which is owned and carried by Jones Intercable Inc., the nation's seventh-largest cable company.

by CNB