I can't tell if Smith genuinely believes women ought to be avoided (at least until he meets Ludmilla), whether it's a pose, or whether he's deliberately trying to drive the female students off because he figures it's bad enough he's got to take a bunch of male students into Nazi Germany without telling them his real plan, and that he can't justify endangering a mixed group.

I took it as the latter, because nothing in his later behavior toward Ludmila indicates that he's actually surprised when a woman shows intelligence and daring. (He is surprised to fall in love with her, mostly because he'd assumed Aphrodite Kallipygos was the only woman for him. You're a classicist, Smith, you should know these things.) I agree that it made me wary the first time I heard it, though.