Years of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse of children perpetrated by nuns in Ireland don't make you think there's maybe something about some manifestations of nunnery that are harmful?
(Although I agree that this is a bullshit reason used to exclude women from anything. See also the Mecury 13 - a bunch of women who did the same astronaut tests as men, often outperforming those men, who were denied astronaut status because that could only go to military test pilots, and they could only be recruited from military fighter pilots, and they could only be men. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_13http://history.nasa.gov/printFriendly/flats.html )
(Although I agree that this is a bullshit reason used to exclude women from anything. See also the Mecury 13 - a bunch of women who did the same astronaut tests as men, often outperforming those men, who were denied astronaut status because that could only go to military test pilots, and they could only be recruited from military fighter pilots, and they could only be men. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_13 http://history.nasa.gov/printFriendly/flats.html )