National Defense > Blog > Posts > Women on Submarines: It's the Education, Stupid

5/12/2010

Women on Submarines: It's the Education, Stupid
The Navy’s decision to finally allow women to serve aboard submarines has been described as an experiment in social engineering.

But it really isn’t. The Navy, for practical reasons, needs female officers in the submarine force. More than trying to be a champion of gender equality, today’s high-tech Navy is reaching out to women in no small measure because more females have advanced technical degrees, says Navy Rear Adm. Barry Bruner, commander of the Submarine Group Ten.

Bruner heads the so-called “Task Force for Women in Submarines,” which is overseeing the process of integrating women, for the first time, into submarine crews. Women were first assigned to selected noncombatant ships in 1978. In 1994, following the repeal of a combat exclusion law, women were allowed to be assigned to combatant surface ships.

As submarines, and the Navy overall, become more technologically advanced, sailors require higher levels of education. More women than men these days are acquiring technical degrees, so it only makes pragmatic sense for the Navy to bring them aboard, Bruner tells military bloggers in a teleconference this week from Kings Bay, Ga.

Over the last 40 years, the percentage of Navy males who graduate from college with technical degrees has declined from 75 percent to about 45 percent, he says. “And women have gone up to the point where today women are actually gaining more technical degrees than men are,” says Bruner. “So we really need to open up the talent pool so that we can maintain the best officers available on the submarine force.”

Bruner’s Submarine Group Ten has two squadrons, one of ballistic missile submarines and a squadron of cruise missile submarines.

“When you go to nuclear power school, that is, for all intents and purposes, a graduate school for nuclear power,” he says. “It would be very tough for any individual who doesn't have a good background in calculus and physics and those technical topics to be able to survive a nuclear power school. It's tough enough for people who have a degree in electrical engineering or chemical engineering or structural engineering. … So that's really the big thing, is the way our educational pipeline is set up for them to be able to survive, they have to come in there with a pretty good technical base.”

Navy leaders in recent years have seen “more and more women getting technical education and fewer and fewer men,” says Bruner. “So for us to maintain a great pool for us to pick from of the most talented young people to become officers in the nuclear submarine fleet, we really need to open up our talent pool, because the pool's getting smaller as we move forward.”  

The move to allow women on submarines has come under criticism from traditionalists who point out that submarines have little room to accommodate separate facilities for men and women. “In private, many will tell you women don't belong in such an atmosphere, they can't cut it, and they would be a distraction to male sailors,” Bruner says.

But he is confident that the transition can be achieved successfully. The women who are now being trained will reach their submarines for the first time in late 2011 or early 2012. They'll be assigned to eight submarine crews, two crews on each of two submarines on each coast.    

There will be two female trained nuclear officers on each of the eight crews, and additionally there will be a more senior supply officer who will serve both as a mentor for new female ensigns and for male officers in the wardroom, says Bruner.  

The Navy has no immediate plans to allow enlisted women in submarines.  

At the U.S. Naval Academy, 138 seniors this year were selected to enter the submarine training program. These midshipmen were chosen based one their academic records and knowledge of technical topics. About 20 female seniors will be picked from 2010 graduating classes at schools across the country.

It still remains to be seen whether the Navy’s newest class of submarines, the Virgina class, will accept females in their crews. So far that seems unlikely, says Bruner. “We're still looking at that,” he says. “The Virginia Class is not built to allow privacy for men and women, so one of the things we have to figure out is what would be the configuration change to the submarine that we'd need to make, and how much would it cost and what would the impact be on the operational ability of the submarine?” he says. “Those are all questions that we're in the process of trying to get answers to. But until we get those answers, we won't be able to come up with a date.”
Posted at 4:21 PM by Sandra Erwin | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (5)

Comments

Re: Women on Submarines: It's the Education, Stupid

been there.    done that.     they are under political pressure to pursue this.    bad idea.

if you haven't been there, you are not qualified to give an informed opinion.
chief white at 5/17/2010 3:10 PM

Re: Women on Submarines: It's the Education, Stupid

considered how conforming it must be to see all those brilliant lights as the warm hearths of loved ones.
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Re: Women on Submarines: It's the Education, Stupid

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Re: Women on Submarines: It's the Education, Stupid

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Jordan Jumpman at 6/29/2010 11:41 PM

Re: Women on Submarines: It's the Education, Stupid

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