Here's my best story on this subject:
Years ago, my department in one of HMC Ships was about 50/50 male/female. One of the females was a single mother who received zero support from her child's father who was nowhere on the scene (not sure anyone even knew who the father was). Nevertheless, she was the consummate professional, exceptionally competent (one of the top sailors on board) and had her act together. Never once did she miss a trip or deployment or try to whine out of them because of her family situation. i was sorry to see her go when her posting was up.
Because of the nature of how we "manned" ships at the time, each position was tagged as male or female because of bunking issues. When my model sailor was posted, I received another female. She lasted a week before the Doc reported to me that the new sailor had a "female" condition, the name of which now escapes me (but essentially permanent menstruation), which although treatable, rendered her "Unfit Sea." I received another female sailor onboard. She lasted about ten days before the Doc (who was now rather nervous about approaching me) came to me and told me that the latest sailor was pregnant, which again meant she was Unfit Sea. I was fit to be tied at this point!
By this stage, we had run out of female sailors of this trade in the area. We had to re-jig the bunking arrangements in order to bring a male sailor on board. He lasted longer than his two predecessors (about a year), but in the long run turned out to be quite the scumbag. He had an ex-wife, an ex-girlfriend and outstanding child support orders from both of them. My attempts to get him to deal with his legal issues proved fruitless and he was eventually removed from the ship in handcuffs by the local constabulary. Oh, as a tradesman he was slug to boot.
I was a bit jaded at this point and thought to myself what I needed as the ideal sailor. I had had a wonderful female sailor replaced by two women, one of whom had to leave through no fault of her own and the other who should have used a condom (yes, it was an accident). In addition to being a slug, the third replacement caused me much grief due to his propensity to father children with different women. My conclusion? The ideal sailor from whom one can expect no huge problems? A eunuch! Unfortunately, the CF is somewhat loath to make castration a job requirement. But think about it. How many leaders out there can think of situations where sex was the root of all evil? If all your personnel had no interest in sex (and hence no wives, no children, no love triangles, etc), wouldn't life be so much simpler?
Now, to bring this back on topic: There is no reason women can't fill any job in the CF (well, except Catholic priest, but that's not our fault). What I've hopefully shown is that leadership grief comes from all areas and that in my case, the man was far worse than any of the women. I really don't hold the women in this story responsible for the medical issues.
