In my time in the Marine Corps, I have seen both women and minorities serving in leadership roles. However, while male minorities seem to have very little barrier to promotion, women have seemed to get the short end of the stick weather they are a minority or not. In reading through the chapter, I initially though I would be focusing on the glass ceiling, but I found myself drawn to the leadership labyrinth instead. I like this metaphor for the lack of representation of women in the leadership positions because while the glass ceiling indicates that everyone has the same opportunity to ascend until a certain point, the labyrinth shows an intertwined set of reasoning for women to be held back from the start (Northouse, 2016, p. 399). It reflects on three different areas where women seem to be held back; human capital, gender differences, and prejudice (Northouse, 2016, p. 400). These three areas are most definitely a global phenomenon, but even in this day and age in the Marine Corps of more gender integration in the combat arms ranks, my field has always been integrated and it still exists. I can think of any number of male senior enlisted Marines, but the number of female one is sparse. Even though females make up about 10% of the intelligence population, the number of senior enlisted females pales in comparison. Looking at each part of the labyrinth I will use examples to show that even though we are an integrated field, we still have a long way to go.
The human capital difference is pretty negligible in our field, and many times I have seen women with more qualifications become nothing more than administrative clerks where their talents have seemed to be wasted. The premise behind the human capital difference is that women have less human capital investment in education, training, and work experience and are therefore less qualified (Northouse, 2016, p. 399). In our field in the Marine Corps, most of the Marines have the exact same background. We all go through the same schools to be qualified for our jobs. However, after that initial school, many of the women have other education that the males generally do not. As with research, most of the time the females in the platoons I have had the pleasure of being in charge of had already achieved a degree outside of the Marine Corps while many of the males do not. Where they fall behind is many times the developmental opportunities and work-home conflict. For some reason, the females are always the ones picked for administrative duties while the males go off and get additional training. This causes the females to get pigeon holed into these jobs and never really get the advanced opportunities to learn the new skills. However, when given the opportunity to do this training, the females many times outperform their male counterparts.
The work-home conflict is another area they get shorted. While males and females alike have to leave work to take care of children, it always seems to be the females that senior leadership complains about leaving. Another large reason for the difference in human capital is the lack of solid mentors for the female population. As I said earlier, there are not many female senior leaders so while the junior females are picking out mentors, the ideal ones for them to pick are nowhere to be found. A male Marine can mentor them, but their lack of understanding of the true female dynamic limits their effectiveness. My example for this section is Cpl Tyner. She came into the Marine Corps with a master’s degree in strategic intelligence and instead of being used as an analyst, she was picked to be an administrative clerk for the training section of battalion. The argument was that she had a child and would need to be gone in order to take care of the child from time to time. However, her husband was the one that seemed to be gone more often than not, and no one said anything about him being gone.
Gender difference is another area where women seem to be limited in the Marine Corps. It is not for a lack of ability though. The military is a very task oriented environment. Research has shown that women tend to lead more inter-personally and less task oriented (Northouse, 2016, p. 402). It is not that the women are necessarily less task oriented, but a meta-analysis has shown that when women try to lead in a more masculine manner, they were evaluated less favorably than their male counterparts (Northouse, 2016, p. 402). I personally have never experienced this in the Marine Corps with female Marines, but it does make sense that they would change their style to match what gets them the best evaluations. The part of the gender difference I have experienced in the Marine Corps is where women tend to be less outspoken about asking for what they want. As Northouse points out, “reaching leadership positions is not done in a vacuum; people must negotiate with others to access the right positions, experiences, opportunities…” (2016, p. 403). This aspect is something I stress to all of my Marines. The worst the Marine Corps is going to do is say no so ask for everything and get the most out of it while some is serving is the best advice I give to Marines. I have noticed however, that the women do not ask for as much. They don’t ask and just assume that as they work hard and don’t rock the boat too much, that the opportunities will come. To combat this gender difference, I have each of my Marines make wish lists of schools and career tracks they want and then as the training chief and operations chief for the company, I work to place those Marines into the opportunities. This effectively gets the females to speak up more for what they want and helps to move them along and combat this difference.
The final part of the leadership labyrinth is prejudice. In the Marine Corps, this is very prevalent in my experience. This I feel is one of the main reasons that the women are placed into their administrative roles. “Females are better suited for these roles than males because they don’t want to get as dirty, they are more organized like secretaries, and they don’t belong on the teams” are some of the reasons I have heard numerous times throughout my career. As Northouse points out, these “gender stereotypes are easily and automatically activated and they often lead to biased judgments” (2016, p. 402). Some of my best team members have been female. Women don’t join the Marines of all services to stay clean and manicured. I have found the women that I am in charge of want to be in the uncomfortable positions or they would have joined another service. Hopefully as the older generation gets out of the Marine Corps, these prejudices will begin to fade away. A part o prejudice that I see all too often is when women are unfairly scrutinized for the actions of some. When males mess up in the Marines, the first reaction is “that Marine is messed up.” However if a female is the offender, it turns to “well it was a female Marine. They’re all (insert reason).” It is gender stereotypes like that that serve to keep women out of some leadership positions because the stereotype is they’re all the same, but just like males, each has their own differences. When a female tries to act against the stereotypes, they are seen as “too manly.” Their damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
There are still many barriers to advancement for women in the Marine Corps, but it is getting better. As women begin to become more assertive and the culture continues to change more women will begin to ascend to leadership roles outside of the ones that choose to forgo their family opportunities. The culture is slowly beginning to change, but successful navigation of the labyrinth instead of just a focus on the glass ceiling will be essential for women going forward in the Marine Corps and outside of it. As more women enter the workforce of the Marine Corps, the gender gap will have to begin to shrink. The more experience senior leaders have with females, the more they should ascend on their own merits and leadership. Some of the best Marines I have served with are female and I will continue to be ab advocate for them throughout my career.
References:
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.