Defense: Recovering From a Tailspin

Distorting the facts about the sexes in uniform.

Jack Kammer from the January 1994 issue

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A few weeks later O'Keefe announced an 80-step plan to "enhance profession-al opportunities for women" in the Navy and to "deal with the culture, environment and attitudes that contribute to sexual harassment and gender bias." His response ignored the General Accounting Office's finding that the most commonly reported "sexual harassment" of women at the service academies consists of remarks from other cadets that standards have been lowered to admit women. Such "sexual harassment" is devoid of sexual content and suggests that the best way to ensure that women achieve equality in the military is to reduce rather than increase special treatment for them.

Admiral Kelso, with his crippled ship commandeered by activists, succumbed to the Stockholm syndrome. To ensure his own survival, he began to identify with his captors. He ordered, among other steps, a one-day stand-down for all hands to be trained about sexual harassment. A female commander in the Navy Reserve says the training included three videotapes that "cast the typical male service member as a brutish predator who at all times would stare at, look at, and suggest sex to any female in his vicinity. The man looked like a prowling tomcat. No woman ever did anything wrong." The men forced to attend this supposed sensitivity session, she says, were resentful and offended. "They just went blank. There's no avenue for the men to counter this."

Integrating women into the military will require both sexes to examine their attitudes and behaviors toward each other. The leadership challenge facing the Pentagon is to take control of sexual harassment and oth-er "women's issues" from those energized by opportunism and ideology more than by a commitment to the military. This should be especial- ly clear to Aspin, who acknowledged in June that the quality of recruits has declined since 1991 and that questions surrounding women in combat and sexual harassment might be a cause.

The military must find the courage to say, "Yes, Tailhook was a mess. It demonstrates that sex is a powerful force and that both men and women are sexual beings. Questions of gender fairness are complex; men and women both think they deserve special treatment. We will deal with these issues. But we will not be bullied. We will not be pushed. Nor will we allow our sailors and soldiers to be shamed."

If Kelso can line up the support of his superiors to take such a stand and pursue such a policy, he can get the Navy underway proudly again on a course that is fair and respectful of all personnel--women and men alike--at a prudent speed into turbulent and uncharted waters. That would be a triumph of leadership that Aspin and Dalton should both approve.