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Home» News»Dutch female sailors now admitted for submarine service
(Credit : Dutch MoD)

Dutch female sailors now admitted for submarine service

The Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) now allows women as crew members in its fleet of submarines. This is the result of a test during which women successfully participated to on-board operations as part of the submarine crew.

Nathan Gain 22 Jan 2020

The RNLN started with mixed sailing in 1982 for surface ships. The submarine service was the only place within the Dutch Defense where women were still not allowed.

« It was already certain that women would be admitted to the submarine service, but only then with the arrival of new ships equipped for mixed crews. The situation in (NATO) partner countries, however, showed that separate on-board facilities are not necessary and sometimes hinder integration, »


the Dutch Ministry of Defense said on January 22. 

De marine onderzocht in 2019 of het in huidige onderzeeboten met een gemengde bemanning kan varen. 1 jaar lang draaiden vrouwen mee als ‘one-of-the-crew’ en met succes. Vanwege de positieve ervaringen laat de marine per direct vrouwen toe als bemanningsleden bij de Onderzeedienst pic.twitter.com/CcQICd5NNu

— Koninklijke Marine (@kon_marine) January 22, 2020

To test this new configuration, the RNLN launched a pilot session a year ago. « It was not about determining whether you can sail with women, but about looking at the rules of life that were to be put in place (…), » the submarine commander Herman de Groot said.

A joint study made in Canada and Australia showed that a strict separation of living areas and sanitary facilities is a bummer for the integration of women on board. « Based on that conclusion, we have only made smaller adjustments to create more privacy. Adjustments that, it turned out later, were also appreciated by men, » added De Groot.

Among others women involved, the Lieutenant Sitara Hartsteen literally and figuratively exchanged her familiar world for a leap into the deep. The exercise program brought Sitara in contact with all aspects of sailing the Zr. Ms Dolphin submarine, such as what to do in the event of fire and leakage. She has also become used to underwater life and all the limitations that it entails. That way, taking a shower every day is not possible, but fortunately she quickly got used to that.

With female sailors now part of Dutch submarine crews, this will likely be a factor to take in consideration at the design stage, for the bidders in the Walrus-class replacement program.

female sailor Netherlands RNLN Royal Netherlands Navy Submarine 2020-01-22
Tags female sailor Netherlands RNLN Royal Netherlands Navy Submarine
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Authors

Posted by : Nathan Gain
Nathan is based in Namur, Belgium. He holds an MA in modern history with a minor in international relations from the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL – Belgium). Fascinated by military history he naturally turned to the defense sector after graduating and is particularly interested in Northern European and Belgian defense issues as well as in anything related to naval aviation.

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