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Via Yglesias, this is pretty intriguing:
The last bastion of male dominance in the US Navy is about to be swept into history. While the eyes of the nation are focused on the first woman to have a shot at winning her party's nomination for President, the Department of the Navy has unveiled a project underway since last summer that will put women in submarines.Huh. Sounds like some kind of crazy April Fools joke. The official reason for barring women from submarines has to do with bunking and space considerations; the Navy claims that it is far more expensive to have a co-ed than a single sex sub. In any case, Norway, Spain, Australia, and Canada all permit women to crew submarines, although in fairness none of those countries have the kind of extended patrols that US submarines normally conduct."This is way overdue," insists Lt. Hanne Bright, an up and coming naval officer. She is among 340 female officers and chiefs who have been selected to initiate an abrupt change in Navy policy; the manning of submarines by women.
--Robert Farley