Discussion 9

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Women Warriors The ongoing story of integrating and diversifying the American

armed forces

Lori Robinson and Michael E. O’Hanlon

H ow have the experiences, representation, and recognition of women in the military

transformed, a century after the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S.

Constitution? As Brookings President and retired Marine Corps General John Allen

has pointed out, at times, the U.S. military has been one of America’s most

progressive institutions, as with racial integration in the years after World War II. But it also

MAY 2020

progressive institutions, as with racial integration in the years after World War II. But it also

embodies a traditional, conservative, and in some ways “macho” culture. It’s an organization

where many (though far from all) jobs require a type of physical strength that is more frequently

attainable for the male frame. And the military is, in large part, a deployable institution whose

members can face difficult conditions in the field. Women are no less suited to braving such

austere conditions and have proved that in combat. But there can be major challenges associated

with sending a mix-gender force into such conditions.

For these reasons, it took a long time to make the military fully accessible to women. Notably, it

was only in the Obama years that all combat positions, including in the ground forces, were open

to them. Previous milestones had been reached only gradually. Legislation formally allowing

women into the military was passed in 1948 (even though tens of thousands had served in both

world wars, and women like Harriet Tubman and Mary Walker had served in the Civil War as

nurses, spies, and even soldiers disguised as men). Women first entered the military service

academies in the 1970s and were only allowed to fly combat missions or serve on Navy combat

ships in the 1990s.

Given the integral role women play in the future of the armed forces, at this juncture in 2020 it is

important to step back and ask: Is the U.S. military a leading or a lagging organization in regard to

gender equity? And, should its leadership be proud of what it has accomplished to date, or

prodded to do much better?

On both questions, the answers are mixed. The armed forces have come a long way in the last

few decades, but this is hardly the time to spike the football in the end zone. There is so much

further to go and addressing these issues of gender equity will not be easy.

The U.S. military by the numbers

Today’s military is much more integrated along gender lines than at any time in the past. Women

are no longer excluded from any type of combat mission: They are pilots and vehicle drivers and

mechanics and infantry officers. But while the U.S. military today has never had a higher fraction

of women, they remain just 16 percent of the total force. Percentages have roughly doubled in the

last generation for the various services but, even today, averaged across the four major

Department of Defense services, women represent only one of every six Americans in uniform,

ranging from about 8 percent in the Marine Corps to 19 percent in the Air Force.

In senior leadership, the numbers are worse and reflect the work that still needs to be done to help

integrate women into the military. One of us had the honor of pinning four stars on her shoulder

and becoming the first woman in American history to run a military combatant command. But there

have only been six women who have ever reached four-star rank. Since General Ann Dunwoody

of the U.S. Army became the first in 2008, the United States has named roughly 100 four-star

military officers. This means that only about 6 percent of four-star generals have been women

even in the period after the glass ceiling was shattered. There has not yet been a female member

of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or a female secretary of defense (or deputy secretary), either.

While the U.S. military today has never had a higher fraction of women, they remain just 16 percent of the total

force.

These gender disparities contrast with a military that, in other terms, is rather diverse today, with

roughly half of its enlisted recruits either Hispanic or members of a minority.1 About half of all U.S.

military personnel are married, and 39 percent have children; single parents make up about 6

percent of the total armed forces. About 5 percent of military personnel are married to another

member of the armed forces. In terms of their family income backgrounds, there is fairly equal

representation across all five quintiles of U.S. income distribution. But there is modest over-

representation from the three middle quintiles, and modest under-representation from the top and

bottom income brackets. Politically, the American armed forces lean conservative, especially

among the officer corps, but there is considerable breadth of opinion in the enlisted ranks. All of

these generally encouraging facts stand in contrast to the poor gender balance.

While the share of women in the military is higher than ever, the experiences of women in the

military are often inequitable. Women in the military services continue to suffer high rates of sexual

assaults from their male counterparts. That is unacceptable and one of the many issues that must

be addressed if we are to eventually see equal shares of men and women in the armed forces.

Addressing the issues

What can be done to address the issues of inequity and underrepresentation of women in the

military? Without claiming to address the entirety of the problem, we have a few thoughts. The first

few are designed to broaden the appeal of military service in general, including for men and

women, and our final ideas here focus on improving gender representation directly.

First, the American armed forces need to recruit from a broader pool of Americans. Some 60

percent of Army recruits now come from military families, for example. And as of 2018, the Army

recruited 50 percent of its enlisted soldiers from just 10 percent of the nation’s high schools,

suggesting too much dependence on certain geographic areas. This suggests that military service

has become a largely family affair, with most volunteers emulating their parents’ (usually their

fathers’) career paths. There is nothing wrong with family pride, and it is admirable how many

children of military parents are willing to accept the sacrifice of service even after they have

experienced it growing up. But passing the baton from generation to generation like this tends to

perpetuate traditions—most, but not all, of them good—and leaves too few American young

people of both genders willing to consider service.

There may be ways to broaden the recruiting pool even in the face of a diminishing number of

suitable applicants in today’s youth population who measure up to military standards. For example,

in regard to the nation’s high level of obesity, while the military should not lower physical

standards, it might look for clever ways to encourage would-be recruits to get themselves into

shape. Perhaps they could be offered employment conditionally, provided that they worked with a

nutritionist and physical trainer for a certain trial period to improve their fitness. If they reached

appropriate standards in the process, they could then join the armed forces of the United States.

We need more women in the senior ranks of the military; it is not enough just to do better with the younger and more

junior demographics, which means finding ways for women to return and continue their careers after they have

children.

When it comes to addressing the issues of underrepresentation, it is important to examine the

barriers that keep women from pursuing military service, most notably, that it remains very hard to

have a family while in military service, and this is true even more for women than men given the

realities of biology. It will not always be realistic for women in particular to maintain continuity of

service through their childbearing years. However, we should not give up hope for these

individuals. Career paths that offer more realistic ways to return to military service after an

extended absence should continue to be developed by the military services. We need more

women in the senior ranks of the military; it is not enough just to do better with the younger and

more junior demographics, which means finding ways for women to return and continue their

careers after they have children.

Elevating women’s voices

In order to increase representation and the appeal of military service for women, we should

amplify the voices of women who have had the honor of serving to spread the word about how

fulfilling it can be. They can be among the most persuasive, and one hopes also the most inspiring

mouthpieces for the military. Marine Colonel Amy Ebitz highlighted some bright spots that reflect

the opportunities for women in the military in regard to pay and experience, in a piece for

Brookings in 2019: On the issue of equal pay, she wrote, “the military absolutely embodies the

equal-pay-for-equal-work principle. Regardless of your gender, your pay will be equal to others

with the same time in service and qualifications. In the U.S. economy more broadly, a woman

earns only 79 percent of what a man earns.” And on experience and opportunity, she added,

“military service allows you to learn skills and to experience places and things you otherwise may

have not. That experience, coupled with veterans’ preference for many follow-on occupations, is

priceless. … In combat, my female Marines, alongside their brothers, manned machine guns and

fought bravely. And no one by their side questioned their role.”

Amy’s story is not entirely different from Lori’s, even though they come from two very different

military services and cultures. What the stories have in common is that both have risen very high

in the ranks and feel very positively about their respective times in service, even while recognizing

how rare their experiences are. We finish with Lori reflecting on her years in uniform, as well as

her decision to join the armed forces in the first place, back in the early 1980s. Her message is

designed to be an inspiration, we hope, to women who might consider a career in the armed

forces, but it is also an admonition to policymakers, in and out of the military services, about how

far we still have to go:

“I am the luckiest person in the world. I am the daughter of an amazing airman, who flew Reece

aircraft for his career, RF-101s and RF-4s. I didn’t understand the importance of what he did, but I

knew that he was good at what he did. He flew throughout Europe during the Cold War, and flew in

the Vietnam war as well. But when it came time for me to go to college, comparing his goals and

mine, I realized we’re different. You see, I was the oldest of five children, from the oldest to the

youngest was six years—yes, six years. My father suggested that I should go to the Air Force

Academy. I smiled sweetly and said, uh no, I had been in the Air Force for 18 years and I was

ready to move on. Once in college, it took me a while to settle on a concentration. Eventually, I

landed on being an English major. When it came time to figure out what to do, I decided that I

would join ROTC, become a commissioned officer in the USAF, and then decide what to do with

rest of my life.

U.S. Air Force General Lori Robinson addresses airmen at the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam on July 10, 2015. (Reuters)

Life has a way of figuring things out for you also. I had no idea that I would stay in for 37 years. No

idea that I would be promoted beyond major. No idea that I would have the privilege to support

and defend the Constitution of the United States at the highest level. No idea that all of my

mentors would be men and fighter pilots.

But you know what? I did and it all started with a couple of things:

—The military is a meritocracy. We all start out on the same playing field with the same oath.

— What was important was the fact that I was competent in what I did. In fact, one fighter pilot

stated, ‘if I had to go to war, I want Lori on the radio.’

—What I realize is that I am a woman and I have done things that no other woman had done

before, like being the first female instructor at the Nellis Fighter Weapons School, and ultimately

running NORTHCOM and NORAD during the North Korean crises of 2017. But what I want people

to understand is that I was a part of something bigger than myself; it was never about me, but it

was about the institution. And I know that I am a role model and that I want to use this for the

greater good.

Our nation needs diverse voices around the table. Whether it is a CEO’s table, the Joint Chiefs

table, or the cabinet of the United States, a diversity of thought, background, heritage, race, and

gender all add to the capability of any leader to make a decision. It makes our nation stronger and

better.”

So yes, we’ve come a long way. But there is plenty of work yet to be done to encourage the

participation of women in the military and to ensure their experiences and opportunities are

equitable to those of the men who serve. If we put the work in, we will have a stronger military—

and country—for it.

1. America’s Promise Alliance, “U.S. Military Demographics,” Washington, D.C., 2019,

https://www.americaspromise.org/us-military-demographics

About the Authors

Lori Robinson Nonresident Senior Fellow – Foreign Policy, Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence

General (ret.) Lori J. Robinson is a nonresident senior fellow on the Security and Strategy team in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings, as well as at the Belfer Center. After 37 years of military service, Gen. Robinson retired in 2018 as commander of the United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and

Robinson retired in 2018 as commander of the United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). She is the first woman in U.S. history to lead a combatant command.

Michael E. O’Hanlon Senior Fellow – Foreign Policy

Michael O’Hanlon is a senior fellow, and director of research, in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, where he specializes in U.S. defense strategy, the use of military force, and American national security policy. He co-directs the Security and Strategy team, the Defense Industrial Base working group, and the Africa Security Initiative within the Foreign Policy program, as well. He is an adjunct professor at Columbia, Georgetown, and Syracuse universities, and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. O’Hanlon was also a member of the external advisory board at the Central Intelligence Agency from 2011- 12.

MORE FROM ROBINSON AND O’HANLON December 5, 2019

A conversation with Gen. Lori Robinson, the first woman to command USNORTHCOM

As the first woman in U.S. history to lead a combatant command, retired General Lori Robinson, who has joined The Brookings Institution as a nonresident senior fellow, was at the forefront of NORAD and U.S. Northern, Central, and Indo-Pacific Command missions to defend and secure America and its interests. Now retired, she brings a wealth […]