{"id":256,"date":"2015-11-05T04:10:43","date_gmt":"2015-11-05T04:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/?p=256"},"modified":"2017-07-19T14:53:40","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T14:53:40","slug":"commentary-gender-matters-but-not-why-you-might-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/2015\/11\/05\/commentary-gender-matters-but-not-why-you-might-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: Gender matters, but not why you might think"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\"Staff<\/p>\n

By Staff Sgt. Margaret Taylor, 29th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment\u2014<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

“They must have lowered the standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

We were talking about the two women who had just completed Army Ranger School, and my brother Tim was playing devil\u2019s advocate.<\/p>\n

Even knowing that he was only parroting a common negative opinion and it wasn\u2019t his own, I got huffy.<\/p>\n

I sputtered something about Ranger pride and the probability that some girl out there had to be capable enough to beat the challenge.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.

U.S. Army Reserve Maj. Lisa Jaster, center, became the third woman to graduate from the U.S. Army\u2019s elite Ranger School, Oct. 16, 2015, in Fort Benning, Ga. Jaster, 37, joins just two other women, Capt. Kristen Griest, 26, left, and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver, 25, right, in gaining the coveted Ranger tab. (Paul Abell \/ AP Images for U.S. Army Reserve)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Our conversation became a bit more civil after that, but something about it has stuck with me in the months since.<\/p>\n

I read a lot of the news reports that covered the story of Capt. Kristen Griest and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver \u2013 and later Maj. Lisa Jaster \u2013 earning their Ranger tabs, all the while looking for something that was missing.<\/p>\n

Was it all about checking the equal opportunity block? To public perception, maybe Griest, Shaye, and Jaster\u2019s achievement wasn\u2019t much more than that.<\/p>\n

But I believe public perception completely missed what\u2019s at stake.<\/p>\n

Gender, in and of itself, does not matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlasphemy!\u201d some might say. \u201cSexism! Misogyny!\u201d<\/p>\n

And I\u2019d say, \u201cWhat\u2019s the point of gender integration? To fill a quota? To add a dash of pink into a sea of blue? I don\u2019t want to be reduced to my chromosomes any more than any other person does.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Maryland

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan eats dinner with a few members of the Maryland National Guard and afterwards gives a press conference along with the adjutant general of Maryland, Maj. Gen. Linda L. Singh, in front of the 5th Regiment Armory in Baltimore, Md., April 29, 2015. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Michael E. Davis Jr., Maryland National Guard Public Affairs Office)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cOf course you shouldn\u2019t!\u201d they\u2019d say. \u201cA person\u2019s value in an organization exceeds her genetic makeup: her experiences, her education, her upbringing \u2013 which are unavoidably linked to her gender and race \u2013 all contribute. That\u2019s why equal opportunity is not only just, but practical too.
\nBarring a person from a position on account of gender means we lose the potential benefits of all the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, from that viewpoint, going with the \u2018same-old, same-old\u2019 all the time would be a bad thing,\u201d I\u2019d say.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure. Bringing in people with different points of reference means we can tackle problems that arise with fresh perspectives. Diversity in the ranks means a more robust fighting force or workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huh. Diversity.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard the word thrown about a lot, most particularly in regard to the Army Equal Opportunity Program. Looking around, though, I discovered that Army EO doesn\u2019t have a monopoly on the term.<\/p>\n

For instance, in finance diversified portfolios cut the happiest medium between profit growth and security. In architecture, bricks run in alternating patterns, which adds strength as well as curb appeal. In biology, inbreeding results in freaky future generations. In military tactics, engaging the enemy with plans that are the \u2018same-old, same-old\u2019 is a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Nikita Zarelli, a member of the Female Engagement Team for C Troop, 5th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, talks with a group of local Afghan children on their way to school in the Dand district, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, Feb. 9.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Even if the word has been overused and abused, I think diversity\u2019s value shouldn\u2019t be ignored.<\/p>\n

Looking back to February, the Maryland National Guard got its first African-American woman as adjutant general. Maj. Gen. Linda L. Singh wasn\u2019t given command on account of her race or gender or to score EO kudos, but those were the focus of nearly every story.<\/p>\n

Then the civil unrest in Baltimore happened in late April, and the Maryland Guard was activated to assist.<\/p>\n

When Singh stepped in front of the cameras, maybe her gender and skin color first caught people\u2019s attention. But she held their attention when she shared the wisdom gained from her background, her experiences and the decisions she\u2019d made to get to the top. All of that \u2013 every little bit \u2013 allowed her to speak words that resonated, that connected with people in Baltimore.<\/p>\n

Singh was the right person for the job, no question about it.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I think gender matters, especially in today\u2019s military. It can\u2019t be just a quota or ratio. Rather, it\u2019s an element that when \u2013 and only when \u2013 taken with all the other things that make up an individual, can strengthen and add depth to a group. This is the purest, most valuable form of diversity.<\/p>\n

While the \u2018same-old, same-old\u2019 can stunt development, I think cultivating such valuable diversity can ultimately enrich the military environment.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.

U.S. Army Soldiers from 327th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division assist Afghan forces secure the customs checkpoint at Torkham Gate, Afghanistan, April 24, 2013. Though women are still not yet fully integrated into combat units, women are not absent from the frontlines. Many fields in the Army, such as public affairs or linguistics, send women to the front where they embed with line units and share the risk. (Photo by U.S. Army National Guard Spc. Margaret Taylor, 129th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] By Staff Sgt. Margaret Taylor, 29th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment\u2014 “They must have lowered the standards.\u201d We were talking about the two women who had just completed Army Ranger School, and my brother Tim was playing devil\u2019s advocate. Even knowing that he was only parroting a common negative opinion and it wasn\u2019t his own,  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[303,302,301,304],"class_list":["post-256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-army-ranger-school","tag-misogyny","tag-sexism","tag-women-combat-arms-integration"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1551,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions\/1551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}