[elfman2]

" I think "women shouldn't be anywhere near there because men can't handle it" is the weakest argument there is for keeping them out. Not convincing to me. "

It's not so much that we can't "handle it". It's just that all the safeguards that we'd have to endure to manage our instinctual protection of teenage beauties in our units would make them one big pain in the rear. Sorry, we're not likely to dump chivalry and our propensity to protect the weak just so some egg headed feminist theorist can experiment with the unnatural, at least not without a fight.

[HairOfTheDog]

You can fight all you want, but the war has already been fought. Women are in all the roles they can conceivably qualify for now. Men and women are getting used to dealing with each other in those roles, and they appear to be, overall, not failing to perform. You are fighting whether they should be put there, when they already are there. It is like arguing whether the earth should be round. It is going to take a compelling reason to take them out. Compelling is going to be more than just theorizing about chivalry and the lost roles of women of old.