Seperate sleeping quarters for men and women on submarines have been scrapped. 

 
It's a move the Federal Government says should offer women more career opportunities.
Both sexes will now bunk together on all three of Australia's operational submarines, doing away with the usual female-only six-berth cabins.

Defence Science and Personnel Minister Warren Snowdon said the old set-up meant that women sometimes missed out on postings because of a lack of bed space.
"This move will ensure that our female submariners access the same training and career progression opportunities as their male crew mates," he said.

"A lack of dedicated bunk space on board has occasionally led to female submariners missing out on postings ... which has in turn denied the submarine force qualified specialists."

Because of the bunk limitations, just two of the navy's three operational boats have carried female crew.

Strict rules will apply so that a woman is never the only one on board a boat and female junior sailors will not be posted to ships or submarines where there are no billeted female officers or senior sailors. Where only two females serve onboard a ship or submarine and one is posted, she will be replaced by a female.

At present, 97 per cent of Navy jobs are open to women.
Meanwhile the Army is preparing to open the last bastion to women as the Government finalises its decision to allow females into front-line roles.

"The basis to determine suitability for roles in the ADF will be based on an individual's ability to meet the demands of their role, not their gender," Mr Snowdon said yesterday.

He said new physical standards would enable the army to significantly reduce injury rates in training and ensure all personnel, regardless of gender, have the opportunity to be employed in the areas for which they are "intellectually and physically capable".

The Army will also introduce a universal physical fitness test for everyone in uniform regardless of age, gender or job and anyone failing the test will be sacked.

Overseas armies including New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Israel, Serbia, Sweden and Switzerland already have females in front-line roles.

The Australian Army employs about 2500 women including 700 officers and 1800 other ranks in its trained force compared with 24,000 males.