well, the 5.56 isn't likely to be improved much without switching to a very different weapon design with a much higher muzzle velocity, so I'll give you that short of a dramatically new explosive being devised, ammo is still probably going to weigh about the same.
As to body armor, there is some very interesting work going on with nanofiber materials and improvements in ceramics which might be able to lower the weight significantly (the dragonskin armor was an early attempt at this, but it had issues with long term performance and harsh conditions), there are multiple companies which are working to try and satisfy this condition. The dragonskins ability to stop bullets was actually pretty good under the proper conditions.
There is also some effort on non-newtonian liquid armors, but I personally have little faith that they will ever handle heavier rounds in a satisfactory manner. In principle though this would be a significant decrease in the weight of body armor were it capable of working.
MBITR are also a wonderful example of excess weight, primarily in the battery system. Improvements in battery density and lowering power usage could take maybe a lb off. Current cell phone tech is significantly better than the stand multiband radio in terms of power usage, but not quite capable of handling the harsh conditions and wear yet.
One issue which crops up periodically is NV goggles, especially ones which mount to the helmet. While the weight isn't likely to change much, this mounting system puts extra stress on the neck. There are non-powered systems capable of redistributing this weight away from the neck already.
Another area which should provide significant improvement is energy harvesting. Right now this basically only means someone has to lug around solar cells, but using piezoelectric or inertial systems to harvest energy from the soldiers motion is right on the edge of feasibility. This technology is just hitting cell phones now and may prove to be economical. Given the increasing amount of electronics that seem to be required for soldiers.
These are just a few of the more easily implemented solutions, by which I mean these are technologies which should see improvement and implementation in at least test scenarios in the 1 to 5 year timescale.
Finally I disagree that removing 10 lbs wouldn't be a significant effect, that 10 lbs can be the difference between life and death, between someone having to carry double their body weight or not.
Its not just me looking at these technologies though, just look at some of the research that comes out of companies like BAE and Raytheon, or better yet you can look at the research publically discussed by entities like the Army Research Lab.
Two addendums: I didn't discuss things like big dog or the exoskeleton type projects that DARPA is interested in because like so many DARPA projects you never know how these will actually turn out, but I feel that I should at least point out that both of these projects could be game changing when it comes to how weight is carried.
Secondly, and I am just nitpicking here but I didn't say that the weight problem solves the gender issue, I said it is a better matter to be concerned about. By this I mean, you will gain more improvement to the capabilities of the Armed forces by putting effort into making your technology better than you would by studying and quantifying exactly how male/female performance relates.