Progress???
I dunno... but definitely a change...
The Navy is slated to commission its very first Virginia-class submarine designed for a fully gender-integrated crew on Saturday.
A submarine designed and built for both genders has been a long time coming. The New Jersey is entering the fleet roughly 14 years after then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates ended the ban on women serving on subs in 2010.
Full article HERE from Navy Times. And the original article, HERE from last year.
Women are getting the 'equality' they wanted, but of course that comes with 'accommodations'... I just wonder what they are...
There is no question things are changing for all of the services, but at what cost? We've seen a reduction to the physical requirements, changes to the training requirements, and female only spaces on some ships and subs.
I cannot help but wonder how much impact that is having on morale, in addition to the loss of promotable billets for males...
Your thoughts?
Something I've been pondering.
Making special accommodations for one group - private spaces for women, separate prayer rooms for a particular religion, etc. - but not for others, always sends a message that one group is more important or favored than another.
So if you have women-only places in a sub (or building, or whatever) but not men-only spaces, what message does that send to the men? And why is it allowed to be sent?
I'm not a fan of co-ed combat. First because of the ever lowering of requirements/expectations. Second because of the social dynamics involved. Given the number of pregnancies that the surface ships have, I can't imagine this going well. And it's not like you can just make port, or fly them home from a carrier easily. The point of the sub is no one is supposed to know they're there.