Seventy-five years after the integration of women in the armed forces, servicewomen are past many firsts because of the trailblazers who carved the path through excellence and resiliency. Today’s servicewomen stand on the shoulders of giants, and whether they realize it or not, they are the giants for the next generation of servicewomen.
Now, there are also great number of allies at the highest levels. Within months of her appointment as under secretary of the Air Force, former Under Secretary Gina Ortiz Jones directed a gender policy review that identified over 80 policies that disproportionately impacted women in a negative way. One person in the right leadership position was able to make changes by asking three simple questions: why, why not and where is the data?
Similarly, last year Army Secretary Christine Wormuth approved one of the most comprehensive directives on parenthood, pregnancy and postpartum policies across the Department of Defense, institutionalizing grassroots-generated recommendations that modernized regulations for the current environment.
We need more of this sort of tangible output from every leader at every level, and it should not have to come as a directive from the highest-ranking women, or men, within DoD. We need a culture that consistently forces institutional action to remove barriers with a sense of urgency, so that servicewomen can focus on the mission. And yet, one could argue women have, at best, been accommodated in a man’s military. True integration requires institutional acknowledgement that women and men are not the same. While job standards should be equal, policies need to account for anatomical and biological differences.
When decisions are made without accounting for those differences, the answer for servicewomen defaults to no, which creates a barrier to service. The problem is not a lack of allyship from the highest levels or a lack of feedback from the lowest levels. The problem is the frozen middle, responsible for policy drafting and failing to consider servicewomen.
To this day, there continue to be systematic barriers imposed on women by legacy systems or policies that never considered a service member of a smaller build, or who experiences menses, pregnancy, postpartum recovery and menopause.
Most of the aircraft in inventory was designed around the average body size of a white male, and so are some of the policies currently driving assignment to aircrew positions. Uniforms and equipment, from flak vests to chemical suits and everything in between are designed for men, and while female versions exist for some uniform and equipment items, accessibility is notoriously — and consistently — challenging.
It is also not standard for bathroom stall trash bins to be available for the sanitary disposal of menstrual products in non-public facilities such as warehouses and hangars, and there is a lack of planning to ensure accessibility to menstrual products in field conditions during wartime operations. It is even standard procedure for servicewomen to parade past fellow service members holding a menses-tinted sample above shoulder height when selected for random urinalysis drug testing.
When it comes to permanent changes of station, the shipment of a servicewoman’s breastmilk is not authorized for government reimbursement, whereas the shipment of trailers, four wheelers, motorcycles, gun safes and more are authorized as part of the standard weight entitlements.
These are just a few examples in a long list of simple considerations that that would go a long way in showing true integration of women in the military.
Over the last several years, the Department of the Air Force has seen a proliferation of grassroots platforms that highlight female-centric barriers and maneuver around bureaucracy to reach decision makers. The Air Force Athena conferences and Department of the Air Force Women’s Initiatives Team are two wildly successful groups that have set the precedent on how to drive change: from leading the conversation on uniform and equipment fitment and availability, to driving changes in hair regulations, and policies that provide the opportunity for pregnant aircrew to continue flying if they chose to.
These platforms are flooded with problems, solutions, and leaders eager to eliminate the obstacles hindering servicewomen’s readiness. But behind the scenes, it is almost always women networking and working the extra hours outside of their day job to maneuver the red tape and secure tangible results that institutionalize change for the next generation to benefit.
It should not be the minority volunteering their time to advocate for themselves. It should be every leader and senior program manager, regardless of gender, asking, noticing, and doing the work to eliminate barriers within their scope of influence.
Servicewomen’s issues are readiness issues that impact performance, retention, and recruitment. There must be an intentional effort to close the gender gaps, and leaders with the courage to do what it takes to effectuate change at the speed of now. It is time to turn allyship into leadership.
Frances Castillo is a prior-enlisted officer with 17.5 years of active duty service in the Air Force. She serves as flight commander and intelligence officer, and is the proud mom of three young children. These views are solely those of the author, and do not purport to be the views of the Department of Defense or the U.S. government.
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