Ellen and Jane take on DoD
On May 23rd, 2012, S-CAR PhD student Colonel Ellen Haring became a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Department of Defense (DoD). She and co-plaintiff Command Sergeant Major Jane Baldwin sued DoD over a policy that prohibited women from serving in a quarter of a million military positions that were considered “combat” positions. The policy was a clear example of “structural violence.” Excluding women from the primary mission of the profession effectively created a two-class culture in which women are viewed as a lesser valued sub-group. Furthermore, excluding women from the core competencies of the profession had a secondary effect of keeping them out of key leadership and policymaking positions. The military draws 80% of its senior leaders from the very specialties that women were excluded from accessing. The result is that in the Army women comprise just 6.7% of general officers and less than 4% of the generals in the Marine Corps.
Choosing to sue the Department of Defense was a conflict resolution measure that sought an arbitrated decision to a long standing dispute. Arbitration is not the most effective way to resolve disputes since one side or the other often objects to and may resist the decision of the arbitrator. Fortunately, January 28th, 2013, eight months after the lawsuit was filed and while they were preparing for their first oral arguments, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta directed the services to remove all barriers to women’s service. The Secretary gave the military services 3 years to implement the new policy. He and the Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff publicly announced their support for the removal of all restrictions to women’s service. While all of these developments are positive steps and many people celebrated the changes, the reality is that nine months after the removal of the exclusionary policy very little has changed for women in the military. Baldwin recently applied for and was denied a senior staff position in a combat arms unit. The military has yet to explain how it will allow senior women to cross over into branches from which they were previously excluded. As a result, Haring and Baldwin’s lawsuit has received several court-granted extensions and remains open.