Women Break Through Another Career Barrier

I’m constantly surprised by the fact that there are still things out there that women “can’t” or aren’t allowed to do. Like this year in the Winter Olympics – did you know that women were prohibited from competing in the ski jump? While the reasons for this event ban are unclear, one member of the International Olympic Committee said he didn’t think women should ski jump because the sport “seems not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view.” Huh?

So this morning when fellow YA author Tanya Lee Stone brought to my attention that the Navy had lifted its ban on women working on submarines, I was surprised, mostly because I didn’t realize there had been a ban in the first place.

According to an article in the Huffington Post, the Navy deemed that women’s “service on submarines would cost too much,” and that “close quarters aboard subs would make coed service difficult to manage.”

The Navy plans to start by assigning three female officers to different crews of guided-missile attack submarines and ballistic missile submarines. These are larger subs, and won’t require modification, allowing the Navy to move faster to include women. Because of additional training required though, it will still be more than a year until women will begin serving on board.