If you are still obsessed with your preconceived notions of absolute gender inequality, just equip your female companions in dresses and sun bonnets and have them hold position near the baggage, where you can tell yourself they are making PB&Js for the rest of your troops.
I think the issue is - One poster finds problems with the number of female companions (I think the number is fine).
However, rather than debate the poster with logic such as "Their back stories explain them, they, like all the companions & PC are exceptional and not typical" - most posters immediately responded with PC statements, calling on sexism & claiming gender equality on the medieval battlefield, something I really object to.
I'm merely debating those who make the farcical claim that women would fair just as well as men in medieval war.
Amen.
There are always exceptions to the rule, and in a computer game this can take the form of female NPC's/what have you.
But at the end of the day, if you can find an exceptional woman, you can also find an exceptional man... and if the general melee abilities are lower (as every bit of data i've ever read, and all of my personal experience will atest) in hand to hand combat for women - then your still left with the man on top.
An example - browse a bodybuilding site such as (http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/index.html)... there are a couple women on there who can outbench me.
They are the exceptions you speak of. But then look at the men, the male exceptions... and the basic differences in physiology come clean. Especially if you look over lifting records by gender.
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If you walk out onto the street, and start comparing every woman you see next to the nearest man... on a purely physical comparison, accounting for age & etc. you are not going to see anything close to gender parity.
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I like the current number of female NPC's. I'm find with Peasant women to. & hey, it's a computer game, I can even tolerate sword sisters.
I do not want to see 1:1 gender ratios of soldiers.