IIRC, Women are born with all the eggs they’ll ever have.
Yes, eggs (and uterine lining) are sloughed off on a monthly basis, but the eggs that come from the ovaries are the same ones that were there when she was 14.
IIRC, Newt Gingrich averred that women are prone to infections should they be obligated to spend time in trenches. Perhaps some will think the same applies for submarines?
This could be a serious problem, indeed.
The Perfect Master says probably not: Does menstrual synchrony really exist? - The Straight Dope
As with the overwhelming majority in this thread, I agree that this makes simple sense. Personally, I can’t see the appeal of submarine service - sounds like it combines the boredom of commercial aviation with the small-but-real risk of a horrible death - but if someone actually wants to do it, and has the skill-set, then more power to 'em. And I couldn’t care less whether they’re male or female.
As for the issues involved - not only do I doubt rape will be anything more than very, very rare, I doubt that even consensual sex will be that big an issue. I mean, most of the time, you’d only have a curtain for privacy, right?
An AOL News piece on the policy change: News, Politics, Sports, Mail & Latest Headlines - AOL.com
That first sub in the photo has no foreplanes on the fin and what looks suspiciously like a White Ensign flying. Is the US Navy planning to put american women on british submarines?
If the women like rum, sodomy, and the lash it’s win-win!
…that was sarcasm, right?
Yes, that has been known to happen, however, there are types of birth control that eliminate (or nearly so) the menstrual cycle, and others that override natural controls and dictate precisely when it will occur. These are used by civilian women out of choice, the latter sort for some decades now. If birth control is mandatory you can either force-stagger the women’s cycles or get rid of them entirely (except for the spotting some women have). End of problem.
(Personally, if I was going to be sharing close quarters with anyone in as tight an environment as a sub I’d just as soon eliminate my monthly cycles entirely. It would not surprise me if most women would opt for that choice.)
I recall an NPR piece once: In WWII, US Navy subs had no doctors on board, only corpsmen. There was one occasion when a crewman came down with appendicitis, and the corpsman had to remove the appendix, using the galley as a surgery, with improvised instruments. The patient lived. NPR interviewed the corpsman. The story was written up in a magazine after the war, and the corpsman happened to be riding on a train next to a man who was reading it. The man asked him, “Do you think that really happened”? And the corpsman replied, “I wouldn’t believe a word of it.”
Women acquire all the eggs they will ever have before they are born - such eggs are held in an immature state until the reproductive years, but a woman’s eggs in her ovaries are as old as she is.
Men do generate brand new sperm constantly, however, they, too, are affected by age and the environment. Older fathers have children with a higher rate of birth defects as younger men. So, really, we shouldn’t have men in environments bad for gametes, either.
No, were are not. Some First World nations are facing the prospect of pension funds collapsing (& China’s facing some “interesting” social problems because they allowed their sex ratio to get so skewed), but the human race is not at risk for extinction because of it. Hell, if you’re concerned about the risk of human extinction I think the whole “nuclear weapons on submarines” is a bigger problem than “women on submarines”.
Just as long as they never have to parallel park the sub, I don’t see a problem.
If the enemy sub loads their torpedo tubes with purses and fancy dress shoes to pull off some kind of ruse then its all over. But, then on the other hand, the torpedo tubes would make quick work of any unwanted infants/diapers, so maybe its a draw.
<shudder> kegel kegel kegel
Though just think of an all female crew with all 120 women with PMS and the weapons keys …
You Bastard!
mushroom cloud in the distance
just joking … I think we would be much more controlled than that!
No, my sub was just like yours. However, even in a “private” space like up forward near the electronics cabinets, you never know if someone going to walk by inspecting something or taking logs, or just wandering by, or whatever. Also, with the exception of the fan room, I’m sure that anyone would be heard if they cried out.
Yes. I never served on a for real sub, but I did spend some time on the Sam Rayburn(MTS-635). It certainly is possible to find private space where you are unlikely to be found. I, for instance, found a nice nook in the space between the battery compartment and the deck that was suspended 12 inches above it that was perfect for undisturbed naps. There were a few other tiny nooks and crannies as well.
But there was virtually no place at all that I could have hid that would have been out of earshot of a good scream.
And you really, really don’t want to be the guy caught doing that on a navy ship.
Surface ships, especially carriers, are PACKED with out of the way, unused storage and equipment rooms that are infrequently visited, mostly under the waterline and near the bottom of the ship where they don’t like to put offices and living spaces. The shaft rooms, for instance, have nobody nearby, are down five decks of stairs at the bottom of the ship. I’d patrol them once an hour when I was shaft alley patrol. Several times I went down there, and it wasn’t until I was very close that I heard a strange noise, and wasn’t until I entered the room that it was immediately identifiable as 2 guys rocking out with guitars with their amps cranked(The acoustics of a solid metal room leave much to be desired, btw).
There was another room nearby there where my division stored our seabags. Had a lot of stuff left in there, forgotten. Nobody EVER went in there. I know because I spent many hours inside, and was never once disturbed. Made a nest out of old seabags and played computer games. Also read the stack of 2 or 300 comic books someone had left behind 8 years before(newest was dated 94, this was in '00 to '03). Hell, I could have hid a body in there.
The one downside to all this… I’ve no issues with serving with women so long as they can hack it physically. But the command goes royally apeshit about sexual harassment, which can get a touch annoying.