In this climate, anyone who does NOT select a woman or person of color for these things had better have good reasons why. The “disadvantaged” person doesn’t have to prove they deserve anything; the person awarding anything (promotions, etc.) has to prove why they do NOT. This is the climate they have created, and those women will always be regarded as suspect recipients even if they thoroughly deserve those awards.
Without getting into the question of what it means to "deserve" these awards - I would think it bespeaks a major crisis if there is not a single man, not a single male human being, in the Navy who would deserve one.