More, not less, gender-integrated military training is needed, argues a new assessment of women in the armed forces.
After conducting visits to 12 training schools at nine installations of the five armed forces, the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) concluded that gender segregation during basic training and in barracks impedes professional development and work readiness.
The committee's conclusions contrast sharply with those of the Advisory Committee on Gender-Integrated Training, appointed last year by Defense Department Secretary William Cohen. Last month that committee, headed by former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker, R-Kan., told Cohen that male and female recruits should be segregated. The report further recommended organizing same-gender platoons, divisions and flights for training purposes.
However, the DACOWITS study argued that male and female trainees' current inability to interact--even to talk to or touch each other--during training and social time caused unity problems.
"Women trainees are not acquiring the necessary skills in training to succeed in work environments in the field and the fleet in which they will usually work with a large majority of men," the report said. "Most service members from every service believed that more gender integration of training was needed than currently existed in their service."
The panel, composed of 20 women, also found that gender discrimination occurs at most military installations, in differing degrees. The most commonly perceived type, the committee found, was derogatory comments about women's abilities, performance and value to their service. Trainees and trainers perceived discrimination in both gender-segregated and gender-integrated units.
Based on trainee and trainer input, the report also concluded that sexual harassment education and complaint systems throughout the military are working.
Cohen said the report was "effective," because it included opinions from a large number of military members.
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