They were conscious of that problem too.
I think females on submarines is a terrible idea. When I was on a Carrier, a lot of them got pregnant, and weren’t available for deployment. That problem is magnified on a submarine because of the smaller crew. If one crew member, especially from the Engineering department, can’t make movement, it gets very hard to make the watchbill, and you would have to take a guy from another boat.
Why do we even have to go to the Navy to know this is a bad idea? The USAF has had women in aircraft maintenance for decades, and it’s been a failure. Some can do the job but most can’t even do the heavy lifting. At best one out of 8 is the success rate. Heard that the USAF tried a few times to run the numbers but they were so bad they had to stop the process before it was finished due to political correctness. It didn’t fit and nobody wanted to ruin their career even if the numbers were on their side. Something often not brought up is that training costs money plus resources and failures waste it. If putting women in aircraft maintenance was an experiment, it would have failed.
Women on subs is all about making women feel good about themselves, thats it. It makes ZERO sense. There is not one thing supporters can say to justify women on subs. Hell, i can’t justify any reason for women on any ship.