Transcripts For CSPAN Women In The Military Discussion At Sea Service Leadership Association... 20240714

We will be talking about secretary james new book. I have read it and listened to it. That is what we are going to talk about. Maam, first and foremost, to break the ice, what inspired you to tell your story . , i wore debra throughout my life i have been active in the business of our National Security closer to 40 years. I have always been a civilian and i have worked in congress, worked in the pentagon for my several tours and been in private industry always working on defense issues. While i was making my way up, i would always look up to the people above me and there were very few women at that point to look up to but there were a couple. And some men. I would wonder to myself about how their lives must be perfect. And how they were able to attain these high. And here was my life which had some successes but plenty of failures and i felt like a hot mess compared to these role models. I know now that was not true. That everybody has something. I wanted for the next generation of women who may look to me and think wow, she has this perfect career and a problem free trajectory. It aint so. So, im trying to share at some of those challenges. Much fromu learn as your failures in life, if not more, than you do from your successes. That was one point. The other thing is i also was a , great beneficiary coming up through the ranks with mentors. People who helped me along the way. I believe strongly that it is incumbent upon all of us who reach a certain leadership point to pay it forward and help others. By writing a book and putting the story out there, it was a way of mentoring at a higher level. Those were the two reasons. That and i had time on my hands. What is the 23rd secretary of the air force to do when she gets out of office . [laughter] the first thing i would like to say is, when those of you get the book, it is broken down into three main parts. The first is charge and navigate your course. What gave you insight to develop a roadmap in charting your . I wantour career to explain that the book is laid out in three main parts and there are strategies under each one. When i was in my 20s and 30s, this was not some formula that i instinctively knew about or that i followed. , imis something that looking back and reflecting and trying to put down my lessons learned. When it comes to those lessons learned, some of this was instinctual. The others came to me through trial and error. Of either things i did right and , or failures. I tell stories of failures and what i learned. It is also from being an observer on the scene and being a careful watcher and observer. Of others. To chart and navigate, you have to take control of your own life. Everyone at all times, regardless of where they are in life, ought to have a plan. A a plan a. Here is where i want to go. Here are my ideas. What are the steps i need to be taking to achieve those goals. At the same time, be prepared to pivot. You may reach the goal, and find out you dont like it once you get there. And may want to change it or you may not reach your goal. My first dream literally went up in smoke. And i had to pivot. Plan b may be better. You dont know what you will be inspired by until you try. Always have a plan in, but be repaired to pivot. Secretary, as you spoke about how your plan a did not quite work, can you share . In the book, the secretary recounts how she wanted to work at the state department and how she was not able to do that. I think you used the term rejected. How did you move forward with that, being able to pivot. You recount wanting to Say Something to secretary kerry but you did not. You said that was a big turning point in your career. Right. When i was a young person, i had my plan a and i wanted to be a diplomat. I wanted to travel the world and work on Foreign Policy with the state department. So throughout high school, college, and graduate school i took all of the right classes, learned a foreignlanguage and lived abroad. And became immersed for semester. I even was able to secure a highly coveted internship with the state department. When i got out of grad school and moved to washington and applied, i thought i had everything going my way. What more could anyone expect . Of a young person, who at that point maybe i was 23 years older 24. As you say, i applied and i was rejected and it was the first big rejection i had had in life and i remember crashing. I remember going to bed for the better part of a week and crying. I was so depressed and dejected. And i thought my life is flashing before my eyes. But of course, one has to eventually get out of bed because i needed a paycheck. So i started applying elsewhere. I landed a job, only one offer did i receive, as a civilian with the department of army. Where is the army contingent . [cheering] now this is very exciting. Except at the time, guess what, it was not exciting to me. Because what did i know. No, i being truthful here. What did i know about the army or the military at large . I had had no real exposure or even thought about it before and i was still feeling dejected from the whole state department experience. But i took the job and did my best and after a few months, the most remarkable thing started to happen. It was really interesting work i was engaged in. So i was feeling that sense of purpose. In my own working on little way, major issues affecting National Security. I had a great team i fell in with where there was great camaraderie. They cared about me and i learn and i had a first rate boss. From them. And i had a first rate boss. Was my first great mentor. After that, one thing led to the next and led to the next which became what i think has been a fantastic and hugely fulfilling career for me all focused on the military. As i said, capitol hill, the pentagon, the business world, supporting defense. And before you know it, 35 years have gone by and i get to be the second woman ever to lead a military service. Amazing. And all of this started with a big failure. And a plan a that turned into plan b. Story, whenkerry im secretary of the air force, i was hobnobbing with the big people and i got to meet then secretary of state john kerry. And it was all i could do to contain myself and not say to this man thank you, thank you, thank you that you rejected me 35 years ago because you know what . [laughter] life turned out pretty doggone well for me. [laughter] but of course, i said none of that. I think we talked about the weather which is what diplomats talk about. [laughter] thank you, maam. As you briefly highlighted, your first job with the army which turned out to be an amazing job. It was also the first time that you got a great mentor. Can you articulate how you have paid that forward as you have mentored many in your career . I have mentored oneonone. I think that is very important. And when i got into a position of authority, both in business and when i was secretary of the air force i insisted that we , launch formal mentoring programs when i was secretary. I spent about a dozen years with a Company Called saic. Which is headquartered locally here. When i had a Business Unit of my own and was leading a team of people, i required of my direct reports that all of us mentor others. That we had identified within the unit as being our high potential next generation of leaders we wanted to bring up along the way. So, i did it myself and i rated my people on the requirement to do it and how well they did it. We set up a program. Surrounding it. In the air force, and i hope it still exists we launched , something in the air force called my vector. We beefed it up. If you have not heard of it, it is a match. Comlike approach to people all over the world in the air force and they can go online to say they want to be mentored on certain subjects. And then mentors, people like me, would go online and list what we were able to give advice on and then matches would be created. I expected my directs to do that when i was secretary of the air force. I tried to encourage others, talked it up. I think there is different ways to pay it forward but the most important thing is to do it one on one. Everyone has the power to do it oneonone. In your book, you highlight the importance of having a Diverse Network as well. You talk about the network of the community that you live in, and that you work in. I know this is obvious to everyone in this room, though there are 1000 people, and you wont be able to meet and get to know everyone in this room, but please do not leave here without at least 10 new deep people that you can keep in touch with. And become part of your greater network. With the exception of the state department where as i said i was applying and then i had to apply to the department of army after that, i can honestly say that ive never applied cold to a job again and it is thanks to referrals, a tip i would receive all of my mentors, by the way, have all been informal. Mentors through my Network Opening the door. It would be up to me to go through the door and secure the job but the network i owe a great deal to as well as for continual learning. That is never rest on your another important aspect never rest on your laurels. ,and your network and mentors can help you do that. You also talked about inspiring a team. During your tenure as secretary the air force we had experienced , a Nuclear Incident during your tenure as secretary of the air force. Can you talk about how you rallied the team to look into that incident . And moved forward. Can you talk about how you transformed that team . Yes, and nothing blew up, by the way. [laughter] it was an incident, but nothing blue sky high. Three weeks into my tenure as secretary of the air force, here i am, brandnew. I had plan a. Six months of a travel schedule laid out. Where im going to be pursuing themes, there were going to be sort of my mantra as secretary the air force. And boom, i get an email informing me and other Senior Leaders that there has been a cheating incident out west at the air force base which is the site of one of our icbm units. So, the nuclear missiles. The young officers were standing so the missile leaders, watch and were caught cheating on a proficiency exam. Now come of course in washington, anything nuclear, is worrisome. Youre worried its going to go nuclear. The president has to be informed and the press is all over it. So i am brandnew and i did not , know exactly what to do at first. I knew it was a big deal and i had to get on top of that fast. I took a few days and became more prepared with the air force team surrounding me. We got the checks and balances and i convinced myself that the Nuclear Enterprise was safe and secure. But we had this matter in front but we had this matter in front of us why did it happen . What would we do about it . We decided to go public with the information. In washington, big secrets frequently leak anyway. I have learned that bad news only gets worse with the passage of time. Get out there. Tell people and be forthright with the congress and the press. And we did it with our own air men as well. Stay tuned, we will give you periodic updates. After that press conference, i remember ripping up that travel schedule and instead, i focused on the Nuclear Enterprise for about the next six months. And discovered that it went way beyond just a handful of air men cheating. There were cultural issues afoot. There was undermanning. The way they were training was encouraging cheating. I hate to say that but they were only promoting air men that got 100 on these tests. These air men did not cheat to pass but to get 100 . A lot of changes came out of that for training, for people, for modernization which i think overall were good changes even though it all started with a bad incident. And that is so much the way life is. You have to take something bad, pull lessons, and leave it in a better position. The clock is ticking. Another thing you talked about in your book was diversity and how to create a more diverse force. Being that we are at a womens leadership symposium and diversity is a big topic, you state that women and minorities are an important tool. However, there continues to be a lack, as we just saw on the screen, a lot of firsts. Last year, dod did a report that talked about female officers and the numbers are staggering. I am an African American female and i notice that we do not have any in the air force and have not since 2005. Can you talk about what you believe are barriers to women and minority women, reaching those ranks . I think we need to focus more on recruiting through the front door. And we do a better job of bringing new women and new minorities on board than we do ultimately in retaining them midcareer. It is better retention and how do you do that . I always go back to what i call the three ps. You have to look at your policies, prophecies, and people programmatic issues. For example, during my tenure, and some of this was broad and affected the entire military by order of the secretary of defense and some of it was specifically air force. Policies sometimes, they are outdated. For example, we doubled the Maternity Leave policy for women in that era. We advocated for tripling it. We did it at first. That is an example of worklife balance. And we extended paternity leave as well. Postpregnancy deployments. It used to be six months. We extended that in the air force for one year. A new mother would not be deployed in the air force for one year out. Issues of flexibility. Process we found a process issue with respect to how we gave exceptions to people with shorter stature. In the pilot field. Hoping to open the aperture for more women pilots. That is a big deal. And an example of the people issues this is mentoring, focusing on people and their Leadership Development and their professional development. These are the three key areas that we need to do more of and i am a big believer in measuring. One of the things i did in my tenure was i gave succession accession goals for officers. We had about 25 women entering the air force academy as firstyear students. And i said give me 30 . I pretty much made that up. Nothing magic about 30. That caused the other programs to go out and search out more qualified women. And in year one, we did not quite make 30 but we made 28 . We may not even have made that had i not set out a goal. As we are about to close, i do have one question if i could take you back to the point in time when you were serving as secretary of the air force, what was truly your aha moment . When you were like wow, this is what i can do . I think it may well have been after that Nuclear Matter that we talked about earlier. Because that was one that was highstakes. Not everyone was in favor for example, of making this a public matter. They felt this was sensitive and could remain private. I kind of bucked the tide on that and used my own leadership imperative on that and followed my instincts. At the end of the day, it was a bad situation but because we were able to make it better, with our transparency, we got kudos from congress. That made me feel like following my instincts and having that confidence that i was in a good place. I think that was my aha moment. The very beginning. I would like to put a plug if you would like to purchase a copy of the book, it is an incredible masterpiece. You can purchase it in the bookstore. And the secretary will be around to sign it as well. I believe we have met our time. Thank you, everybody. [applause] on behalf of the leadership forum, we would like to present you with a token. Thank you. [applause] now i would like to introduce one of my cochairs, mr. John dittner, the only man on our associations board and the founding president. He has worked for us for 26 years. He is an advocate for women in the military and this conference would not be as successful without you, john. I am proud to welcome john dittner. I am one of this years cochairs. I am one of the founders of ssoa. I only missed two and the only reason why was because i was stuck overseas. One time in bosnia and one time in cuba. I was earning my overseas ribbons then. It has been amazing watching this Organization Grow over the years. I was remarking to one of my friends that i have known for almost 30 years, back in the day, we were lucky if we could get 100 people in the room and now we have over 1000. That is amazing. It is because of the hard work on the part of a lot of people. There is one special person i would like to thank, martha mcphee. In addition to being the woman behind the scenes, she is also a captain in the marine corps reserve. She is actually one of us. Go, martha thank you. Next, i would like to introduce the next panel to you. This is a group of women from the coast guard and marine corps who have been placed in maledominated units. I understand. I was a man and a female field. I understand there are ways to work effectively in that field. They will have some interesting stories watching the cultures. So please welcome the members of this panel along with their moderator. The editor for military. Com and a huge advocate for military members. [applause] youll right, well, thank all for being here this morning. This is an extraordinary privilege for me and im very excited to hear from this panel and learn their insights as well. Military journalist, i think i am actually the first female editor of military. Com, im not supposed to play favorites, but ive been covering the marine corps and the coast guard for a long time and you are my favorite. Rankings,e the floor see me in the back later. Both of these services have been on the frontlines of this ongoing conversation about gender equality and inclusion and representation of the military. Ways. In very different that has been an ongoing conversation. Im excited to hear perspectives on that worked without further ado, lets dive into discussion. Panelists, if you could, take a minute to talk about yourselves. Well go ahead and start with to be here. Is great this is my second year doing jewels. I am a reservist, then a reservist for 16 years, always been a reservist. I have been stationed from small stations to sectors. I have been deployed with Port Security unit which is our deployable units. And now i am senior enlisted officer in destin, florida. It is great to be down there in the winter because i live in buffalo. [laughter] good morning. Im also a career reservist. That is exciting to hear that she is also. I was commissioned with that was a support for other noaa officer. I like to go backwards. The currently the j3 for Coast Guard Reserve unit at u. S. Southern command. Wow, did i ever think i would go there . No. But, prior to that, i commanded the Port Security unit out of mississippi and certain other command roles. And a couple of other port securities around the country. And, before that, homeland security, on watch in washington, d. C. Ive had different jobs in the northeast. I currently live in d. C. , and i support the department of energy and interestingly the administrator of the nsa is a woman and she spoke many of the same stories our last speaker spoke about. So, thank you for having me. Good morning. Currently i serve in idivision, a part of dci in the pentagon as ocent policy development. Im also a, reservist as well. So, before that, i was stationed at marsca. Marsac. Before the ima detachment i was a part of their combat support battalion, activeduty. And, before that, i was in okinawa, japan. Ive deployed to afghanistan, iraq, and for kina faso in western africa for people not familiar with the african continent. And i did some short deployments throughout asia when i was attached to third intel battalion in open our. In okinawa. Im currently the deputy commandant for information in the pentagon. I came there by way of our congressional fellowship. I spent all 2017 on the hill working for senator in my payback to her now. Before that i cut my teeth as a Communications Offers in the Second Marine Division in camp legend. When i showed up i was at a Division Comm Company First learning on about my job but after doing a deployment to afghanistan i went to our second assault amphibian battalion. I was one of the first women there, which is one of the battalions that runs are amphibious vehicles. Now im here. Thank you so much. I really hope that this is a freeflowing discussion. Any question i throw out, anyone can answer. And feel free to go back and forth a little bit as well. Im excited as well to get to your questions before the end. Obviously, the cultural changes that are taking place in the military, they are happening in parallel with changes in the culture at large. The military does present some unique scenarios and challenges. Just kind of to set the table for this discussion, could you each talk about the cultural changes or struggles that you have observed in this fan of your own careers when it comes to gender equality in the military. Whether it is that time of the month or getting pregnant. None of that. You are kind of alone in that fight. Are certainere feel ayou just dont part of the boys club because you are different and that is ok. Thats wonderful, actually because what i realized is i brought something to the table that my counterparts did not. Marines are known to be rough around the edges. Woman, i was not as rough. And the marines noticed that and they felt like they could come my malere often than peers and the counterparts there. Ok, sorry. What she said was really phenomenal. Yes, so we have to, when you see another woman out there, introduce yourself. Tell her, you know, get coffee with her. Us. Hard for here it seems like there is a lot of women in the military. We are all here. [laughter] but when youre at your units, it is different. You feel, you are just not, you are woman and that is amazing so much more to the table, i think, just with our femininity and we can be proud of that. We dont have to be one of the boys. And if you work hard and you do your job really well, you were going to stand out because one, you are woman and you are different there. But working hard and just standing above the crowd next to the guys, you will get noticed. [applause] i think that one of the things i did not realize i really wanted was senior women to look to. I think that was one of the hardest things about being one of the only ones was that f rom a very early age i had to be the one. And i think everybody in the military experiences that to a degree. Ive realize spending a year on the hill that in the military and other services we receive a lot of leadership opportunities at a much younger age than other people do. If you are platoon commander, you will be in charge of people a lot earlier than their civilian counterparts. So that is normal. So then it was the added pressure on top of that, of every single unit i went to, i was the senior woman. And i had the good fortune of ors whoseveral male ment really helped me and pushed me to grow. Any womenwere never for me to look at and say, how did you do this . Had to beys performing from the start. I had to be the one that the junior women could look at, even as i was trying to figure it out on my own. For me, that was one of the key struggles of being one of the first women in. I ended up going to, second track when i first got the division, the unit wasnt open here. I have to go there. There were like, that was against the policy. I went to afghanistan. Said,ile i was out, they check it out, youre going in. I was the captive. There two lieutenants staring at me. What do we do now . We have been here for months waiting for you. I guess well figure this out together. Finally, coming into the pentagon a little bit by coincidence im in an office that has a concentration of senior marine women which i have never seen before. And it was suddenly like this breath of fresh air. I did not realize what i was missing, having women to look up to and see them having careers and making it happen and having families are not having families and pursuing their goals and doing different fields and taking different opportunities. You dont get to see that breadth of experience when it is just you. [applause] havent actually been the only woman but i have been one of the few women my entire life. Cap to laguardia and i went to the 1980s. But we look great. Have been around the service where there have not been that many women. Im also an engineer. I went to an Engineering School not many women. Not manylds with women. Im very familiar with it and i definitely saw the things you are talking about. I like to think it didnt, i kn ow im bucking the whole system but i am like i like to think that it did not hold me back being in the women in the room. That is partly from my constitution. In my command, my motto was do the right thing. I think if you do the right thing as we both said you will continue to do well and people are going to recognize that you deserve to be where you are. You should not have to fight to there. If you are doing the right thing, youre going to get recognize. If youre not getting recognized that if somebody like me as an to look to seeb that we are recognizing the right people. We are giving them opportunity that they are not getting them are not ready to push their way in and ask for that job in that that yousion or group want to go to. Something that is not being done. For me, that has been my role in the coast guard. I was thought my job was to remove the roadblocks for people. A commander i had that opportunity and so in my unit that is what i look for is what was in the way . Was it for the men or women . But there was a piece of me that always has a special eye out for the ladies in the services me. They might not take at the same way i did. They might need that knock on the door to help them open the door. I think that has been my take on it. A little bit different. [applause] me, im typically older. I go to deployable units or i activate for hurricanes and stuff like that. I am one of the older females in the group. I become the mother hen. The guys look at me as the mother hen. Which makes me be able to do my job really well. Im in a support role. But, at the same time, it separates me from being one of the group and one of the guys, because nobody wants their mother hanging around. [laughter] but i have been at a couple of units and i had some very Strong Female leaders. Were together at ohio, no, sorry, sector mobile. You are my Senior Reserve officer. It was very good to be able to work with you and kind of support and get there. I was still fairly young at that point, and i worked at trancs com, where we had quite a few various branches had Senior Leaders but i had two coast guard leadership in there that supported, pushed, helped and it was good to see that their careers go and that i could follow their path, not followed her coattails but watch them go and say, i can do that too. Because i am going to stay listed and be Senior Leadership in it listed in a listed. But being in a unit were you are the old lady and youre th emother is tough. I want to be one of the guys. It kind of precluded me. Even know i could do what i did well on the guys appreciated it. Can i ask a question . Yes. As im learning more about the Chiefs Network, can you enlighten all of us, enlisted and officers what about being part of the Chiefs Network . Being part of the Chiefs Network is great. There is always people you can reach out to. They are there. There to help you, they are there to help others which is also part of how you become a mother hen. But when youre at a unit, i was deployedfemale chief with this group. Towas, i had nobody female go to. We had a couple other chiefs, get thehey do not female problems. They do not get some of the female issues. There were 100 of us. Five females. And three of them were enlisted. So, it made it tough. I want to pull on a thread that secretary james spoke to very well, and something i am hearing as a theme as you all are talking which is the importance of mentorship. And, you know, i think that is female mentorship and male mentorship in the military to know what you need to know. An what have you found to be effective way of seeking that out and what advice would you give to women who are maybe more junior in their careers looking for that . Say certainly as a starting point, you have to perform. And you have to actively pursue it, because youre going to get as much as you put in. If you show that you have a thirst for learning, and that you want to push yourself and you want to grow, then you are going to get more of those opportunities. And that is going to compound. The more you want to push yourself the more your mentor will push you the more you are going to learn. When i think to my time in division, the two best mentors i had were my bosses at the time. So, i actually worked directly for them in a professional capacity. Kind of the hallmark of those told themips was that that i wanted to push myself. And i told him that i wanted to do whatever i could for the team. And after i showed that i had my then they gave me opportunities that were far outside of kind of the normal career path. And so, what i am forever for isl for, to them that they kind of went out on a limb for me, which i think sometimes you have to do if youre going to be a really above beyond mentor. Sometimes it is going to require a little risk on both ends. Like, gave me these opportunities that probably some other people, i know some of the people looked at them and there were like, that is little crazy. We had established a trust relationship and once ive had that opportunity, that was like everything. I went all in on it. Both, because it was an activist role on both sides, and we had that trust relationship and we both took , it risk and went into it really was successful in both cases. And i really, it was not easy in either instance but i learned a lot. Id like to think i brought some value to the table as well. An easy thing not and it required active participation on both ends but that was a huge value for me. I know you talked about addressing the young woman in the room seeking out mentors. I would like to address some of the midlevel, like may be o3s, captains senior s, you may not feel like you are equipped to be that mentor but you are. You are 100 equipped to go out the junioro see enlisted or Junior Officers and take them underneath your winning and they will be forever grateful because i remember being like second lieutenant, first lieutenant, i did not, you cant spell lost with lt. [laughter] which way is up . Leaders who took me underneath their wings, and it wouldve been even better had they been a women leader. But we just didnt have any. So those men identify potential and took me underneath their wings and guided me, and im here today because of the. So, if you do not think you are a leader you are because you signed up to be in the United States military and that makes you a leader because were like 1 of the population. This is a lot of, this is a great percentage of the military to we are so small compared the United States, the population of the United States. So, you are a leader. And seek mentors but seek mentees as well. [applause] nailed it. [laughter] well done. Enough,ts not always unfortunately, to be there. And, you know, to have earned your place in the unit and, where you are. Is thisately, there element in some cases where you have to prove yourself after you get there. And, you know, the marine corps has grappled with this very publicly through some of the social media scandals over the last couple years. But i think that has kind of pull back a corner of a much bigger discussion. Like this is been going on for a really long time, but now its sort of in the public eye, which can be a good thing. So, you know, it is interesting to be talking about this now. Four years going on since the juste corps opened to women against the recommendations of Senior Leadership. So, for all panelists, can you talk about the time, any times that you have encountered that mentality of, you know, just being less than . Whether in capability, in physicality. Mosthat you found are the effective ways to challenge that way of thinking. Can touch on that one. Being short in stature. Im wearing heels so i look tall. Im just barely five foot. Being older. Going to are deployable units where the pt is a little higher than the coast guard standard, they look at me funny. Like, oh, you can do girl pushups. I dont think so. Not going to happen. If im going to this unit, i am prepared to go in and do what the age group 10 years younger than me can do. Thats my goal. It has nothing to do with anything but me walking in and saying, im not going to just sit here and do and be that old female thats barely five foot. I can do it. And i push myself. [applause] i can take that theme and go further into some other Port Security units. Little older, same thing, right . We have got the same size. I always like to do my age, im 51. I have to do 13 pushups. Pushups, io 13 should not be meeting all coast guard deployable unit in my opinion. I always go for the age that i am. But part of me doing that is so that everybody in my unit sees the coo doing the best the co can do. If ive got to run, if i have got to get out there and run all year round so i can run at the test, which i kind of do anyway, im going to run. If you are 18 and you cannot keep up with me, that ought to tell you something. Got 18yearolds and 25yearold who cannot keep up with the co twice their age, it inspires them to work harder. I lost a bit of where your question took, started us, but those same kinds of things, give it your all. That inspires other people, at least in my experience and maybe, ive seen things like that. Ive seen people ahead of me that had been phenomenal to follownd i want their example and so i try to do that same thing. So our combat for everybody who is not in the coast guard is these Port Security units. We are the deployable units of the coast guard. We deployed outside of the u. S. Not typically inside. And then we have one active duty element that goes to Patrol Forces southeast asia. Some activeduty members there. Not able to join us today. We are the deployable part. So, we need to be having everybody in our unit ready to go. We have very operational components. We have our boat operators. We have, we actually trained to marine corps standards for our maritime enforcement, our land forces. Then we basically have support elements. Unit, every single one of my support element people went to basic combat skills, and they performed far above the expectations anybody had for them. I think its a good example. You have to do it, you have to e6 inage and female active duty, she was the number one cheerleader for pushing people to get in the class and do better than the guy carrying the heavy pack across the line. Im doing it and so are you. [applause] im going to continue the theme of the physical fitness. I think that when we walk into the room, the first thought is, wonder how slow she is going to run . I wonder if she is going to be the first one to drop out . And not this girl. Nope. Not going to happen. Im thinking, which one of you guys is going to drop out . Which one of you guys is going to beat me . Because that is just we have to be the meat eaters. We have to go out there and challenge ourselves, but w ecant beat ourselves up. Women are notorious for being so catty, but being so destructive on ourselves. And its going out there and, even if you did not make, you didnt run as fast as you want to do or do as many pushups, that should be the drive to do one more. The drive to run two seconds faster. Every day you have to continue to push yourself, but you cant beat yourself up over it. And i remember my first appointment to afghanistan, i attached to a team of green berets. And from there, i also went out on a couple short little, i guess, attachments to the marine raider teams. And i was the only woman. And that was the thought. I wonder if shes going to slow us down . Not, nope, not going to happen. Like, i worked so hard. I didnt slow them down. There were guys behind me. Im like, you have got to keep up chief. Lets go. Hey, marine. Just challenge yourself. And if its hard, it means its working. It means you are just getting stronger. That burn when youre working out, just do one more. Do one more. Like, have that mantra, one more. That is going to continue to make you stronger and faster. And, again, its going to help you stand out. Also, if you are that physical fitness phenom at your unit and you see other people struggling, say, hey. Let me help. Come work out with me, be my battle buddy, especially if it is the young woman. Come. Ill help you work your physical fitness plan whatever. Be a mentor in that sense as well. I think [applause] all of what im hearing right now is there needs to be a reassurance that we are not going to hold the team back. Is still the that expectation, and i think the more everybody gets used to seeing women in these teams performing, the more that will b ecome not the default assumption. Theyll realize that women can perform. As we do so, we help raise the standard. The grit component of it is also important. Not just like we are not going to hold the team back, but also, when they see people who are lot smallerr like a than everybody else is new, working hard and keeping up, they realize that that reveals the character trait thats important. And i think beyond the physical stuff, which ive definitely talked aboutt gets a lot for a reason, it is important, i think it is also important to be a real person. That looks different for everybody. But it cnan be part of leadershp is people trusting you. And understanding who you are. And so, if you are not being who you are because you are trying to hit some arbitrary expectation of what a member of the team looks like, people will be able to smell that immediately, they will see right through you and then they want trust you. So, the performance, physical jobwise is critical, but also, being who you are, even if you might go in thinking, i do not know if i fit in here. You are not going to make it happen by trying to be not you. So, if you show up and you are you, and you know your job and you do your thing, people will come to realize the value you can bring. [applause] think partly its not always expectation that the woman in the team is going to bring us back but it is the success that ught, everybody in this room, when you do those things, you demonstrate that there isnt anything keeping you back so that the next time that team gets a woman or a man that they are going to question and say, is this person going to hold us back . They are not going to question it because they do not have a reason to do that anymore. I think im circling around on myself but when you do well, when you perform the way you can perform, when you do the job you know you can do, you break those barriers that other people had. So, continue to do those things it ties back to the mentor piece. If you are doing the right thing, people will not have that same question. Those same people will not have those same questions. Keep doing the right thing, keep. Performing keep being the one with the good ideas. Dont stop doing those things. Keep doing that. And the next time there will not be a question and the person following you will not have to say, do they think im going to it . Because there is an expectation that you will make it. I hope that makes sense. Thank you. I want to talk a bit about representation. This is something that i think, you know, the military service into,ship has keyed especially as they integrated previously closed units. Talked a lot about having a cadre, having some women Staff Members in place, because, you know so that you are not the only one and that has been affected to some extent but obviously, you all have experience being the only one of you at some point in your career. Military do the better to make sure that there is that representation, so that there is somebody kind of, you know, that the unit commander can say, what am i missing here . Thatdo i need to make sure this is happening so that the women servicemembers and the men servicemembers have what they need to do their jobs . The secretary james mentioned this measurement. There was a time in the coast guard were the reserves specifically, not necessarily women, the reserve was being put on the side. And there was a big change throughout the service where all time, it think at the was a Group Commander. They hade commanders, the responsibility for ensuring the reserves perform to the same level as active duty. So the Group Commander was rated on whether or not all of their people could do the job. Mostwas effective for people. There is always going to be somebody that will buck the system, some commander that says, this part of my division does not really matter. That is not our problem as the workers. The service itself needs to take care of that. When they put that responsibility on a commander and said all of your people will toable to perform and be up speed on everything we need to do, it was very effective in helping the reserves. Mandateink, when the comes from the leadership that says, you will accept everybody into your units. The changes that we have made, i think that goes a long way and holding to it. The secretary also mentioned it is not just putting the measurement out there, but checking and seeing how we are doing. If we have a statement that says we need to have more women in or women in certain jobs or in different roles in our services, we need to check back and see if we are getting there, because how do we know if we are doing well or not . I think its important that the services actually care. I know that there are a lot, a lot of issues on the Service Level leadership has to deal of. Which can seem existential on a daily basis. When you think about the mechanics of trying to equip everyone and just deploying combat forces and doing all the stuff we need to do, it is a lot. Seenssues that it can be as womens issues can kind of get pushed off to the side like it is not critical. But i think as we start to see more people realizing what value that women bring and what value diversity brings, it becomes more of an imperative to realize that if we are not laying the groundwork now to retain these women, we are going ofbe facing a hurt in terms heading the leadership that we need and 10, 20 years. Theso, it takes leaders at senior level who are going to really engage, and not just look at what policies we could possibly implement kind of stuff around the edges, but really sit down with women, really collect hee data to find out where t issues really are, and put some creative thought to what policies are going to address those actual issues. Addressing causes, not just symptoms. Kes personal engagement at the leadership level, that takes measurement, that takes the data and that takes real concrete engagement with servicemembers across the component. So, its not exactly easy, but if people are engaged at the highest levels, then you can see a turn, where its not just a thing here, but an actual concrete shaft. [ shift. [applause] i also think it comes with the personal encounters that we have with the mentorships. If you see a young leader who needs to stay because they are that good, advocate for them. Be the person to stand up and say, what do we need to do to keep you . Because you are an effective leader that has unlimited potential. And we cant lose you. Know there is a shift to the talent management. And i think across the board within the services and thats key. If you see talent, you need to figure out how to keep it. And thats the one on one, because the pentagon isnt going to see that one marine that should stay. Because the pentagon does a lot of overarching policy, and change happens very slowly within bureaucracy. Onewe need to change it person at a time as well. Its not just overarching. So, going back, be the advocate, be the mentor. Be a leader. [applause] of goodheres a lot stuff here, so im sure the audience has some questions. I see we have got some microphones set up here and here and here. If you have a question feel free to come to th emic, and i will call on you. We know you are not shy. All right. Lieutenant margaret gresham, United States navy. I have a question. Something ive seen personally. As a female leader, whether it is senior enlisted or senior officer, how do you bridge the gap with personalities . As you said, before, we want to be the best, we want to prove ourselves and ive seen especially with some leadership with senior women it can come across abrasive. What is your best, from your own experience, on how to still get your point across and still be respected but at the same time not be that bword . Can take that one, at least to start. I just left my command. And martha can probably tell you more than anybody but i laugh more than i cry, yell or anything else. I certainly could be the b. But that genuine laughter, that genuine attitude of we are all going to succeed, that is my personality. I brought that to my leadership. And i think one of you mentioned it before dont be somebody who you arent. Be your true person. You need to be true to yourself and bring that personality. If it means you get angry angry. Es, be if it also means you yelled at somebody and you need to apologized afterwards or perhaps like peoplei dont say i did not mean to say that in the news all the time. If you get really down and dirty and are reprimanding somebody or having a tough time, a tough conversation with a peer or somebody close to your level, a nd you think you were out of line, go and talk to them and find out. Maybe there is a better way to two of you can communicate. But i think the basics. You just have to be true to yourself, and i would be willing to bet that most of the people in here are nice people. Most everybody i have met, womenwise anyway, i can speak for in the military are really nice people. Dont worry about putting that other face on to do the job you have to do. Be your true self. [applause] thank you. Good morning. Martha wilkins, im here as a d. A. , civilian but i am also retired reservist. I wanted to could you be to the dialogue. I do not have a question so much, but on the level of, on the topic of mentoring, and active mentoring, we also have to realize that as leaders, regardless of gender, but specifically because of our gender, we are also role models. And role models, you mentor through your actions. And, whether you are on the pt field or in a meeting or commanding the unit, you are being watched, whether it is by the lowest private or the highest senior officer, male or female, you are being watched. How you conduct yourself in those moments of stress, doing one more push up, running that much faster, or handing handling a challenging issue in your unit, you are setting the example in leading and mentoring both men and women, junior and senior, peers across the board. So, just how you handle everything and approach everything you are mentoring and bleeding through that. And leading through that. Thank you. [applause] as a followon to that, secondary thought that i had is side, whole abrasiveness if you have somebody you can talk to about how you are going to present something, that can be in valuable. The if you end up saying same thing, you have talked it through and maybe somebody said, perhaps you want to tweek it this way. Somebody you trust. Tweek that specific part this white. That could go a long way on the first question and to being a role model. It is important to stop and think what you are going to say and how it can come across. Donot be afraid to say the message but think about how you are going to say. That also applies to emails. [laughter] morning. Can you hear me . Good morning. Wendy petersen kid im grateful to be here as a civilian working in the air force. I serve as a first line level 0 engineers. Ith 80 over my career ive been one of the few if not the only senior engineering leader. And i live for mentoring and d oing personal and professional development but often it is overwhelming to get your regular duties done in addition to that. I was wondering how you balance doing the mentorship with getting a technical job completed. One person at a time. Didnt have that many marines underneath me. I had a team of 12. The initial counseling that i had with them lasted about 45 minutes. So, that was on top o fthe day we already had. So, its 6 00 at night. Hey, can i just get some time with you to figure out who you are . You know who i am. We can start this off right. And one person at a time. Two and a halfu itple a day for a year, takes you a year, but at least you have that encounter with the people underneath you. E also, and you have to selective be selective. You dont have unlimited time and your time is incredibly valuable. You should recognize the value of your own time and what that means to you. And so, like, i am here to give basic advice or to answer questions for anyone. Rines, if one of my marines knew something, i drop everything immediately an answer that on the spot. But when it comes to more kindsive mentorship, the of thing that is going to be a time investment, i like to treat my time like my money and i like to put my time towards the things that really matter because it is a statement of what i value. If im taking on a mentorship role that is going to be time intensive, it is going to be for someone i feel can benefit. Someone who probably does not have access to that necessarily. So, probably like a young woman who doesnt have as much access as someone else. Forits going to be someone i can develop that trust relationship with that i mentioned earlier. Not going toust put a time of time and to someone who has a lot more resources at their disposal because my time is limited and i want to give that to someone who does not have as much access. [applause] say, some of the best mentoring both as a mentor and mentee, have been informal mentoring. People often ive helped, drop of a hat. Can you help me with this . I see this active duty opportunity, will it work for me . Being there just to answer those questions whatever takes five, 10 minutes. They have made a step up in their career, they look act at it and thank you. As a mentor, as the same thing, i have a captain i reach out to on a regular basis and she reaches out to me. Bounce career things, job things, work related things all the time, and it is the best mentoring is those informal ones. Good morning. Im an analyst stationed on the west coast. I heard you guys talking about grit and your constitution. My question is when you are finding a leg of that or something has shaken your constitution what are some of the things you ladies do help to bring you back to center . I have two coast guard friends, have many others but i have two coast guard friends, they are my triad. It doesnt matter what the topic, what the time of day, if i need something, they are there. The second thing for me that i be ach a bplus, strive to a. Lus instead of an i have really gotten into meditation. My own version. I take time every day to do that meditation. And between those two things, my husband helps once in a while but i say between those two things i have been able to do it. Find your resource. We are talking about the mentor s. Find what or who can be your resource that you can go to any time of day, anything probably everybody has one. You just need to ask them or see who they are. Ill admit. I am not afraid to say i will go into a room at cry. It is getting a good cry out, yelling at something, hitting the pillow works to get it out, so i can get back out of focus, i will do it. [applause] relationships are so important especially i am a hardcore extrovert. I really need to engage with people. It helped me feel lifted up again. In addition to that, i really try to take care of my body. Im not always best about and we can lose track of that and especially in High Sensitivity times when there is a lot of physical requirements. So i tried to get a massage if i can find the time to do it, it helps especially after a hard workout. I get injured if i dont do that. I go to yoga, i try to remember to put my phone down at night and just read a book. A really good book that has nothing to do with work or anything and just let my brain go to a place thats not like the news in the marine corps and the work in all of the stuff. Ready for bed every night. Working to try to squeeze into her three more questions. Good morning. Im a pilot. My question to you guys in the 16 years of service, i got two beautiful kids. Theres always this wonderful balance of getting to the unit and figuring out when youre going to get pregnant how you going to do deployments and wonderful thing of having the burden of a family and having the burden of continuing their career and trying to make rank and trying to do all the things in the military. On multiple occasions, ive been told to do just go home and take care of your children. Ive been told that i am not putting my family and my husband putting everything in that we should be doing and not giving 100 percent and the men are having to pick up the slack for us. So for those who havent heard that before, i would be actually surprised my question to you is how you guys give them advice for people that are coming to the unit that are struggling with that workfamily balance especially when it comes to women. Now youre off for the nine months being pregnant. Now youre not deployable for a year. Coming in being the one that is the slowest in the unit, thats not what i fall into, i fall into zero no theres a female here and when is she going to get pregnant. My question is how do you defeat that cultural change . My level being that midline supervisor, i do get the female coming through. Im just supportive. Its your choice and write so we are here to support you and your family because without that, youre not going to be as good at your job when i need you in the office. I will even fight my supervisor i say look she needs to take your time and be with her kids. Its fine and we have it covered and i try to make the entire office work as a team so that we do have you covered. Because if you feel like youre covered, you feel better about coming in and doing your job. [applause] i think being supportive like that is so important. Ive been pleased to work in an office recently where you never hear any of the negative comments about how we ever going to pick up the slack because this woman is out on Maternity Leave. Thats the kind of positive culture we need to see everywhere. I think if you can be supportive exactly like you said, recognize that its everyday strength and that families are important and that also are into space the military is important. And make sure we are reinforcing that culture everywhere we go. If you see someone who hamza negative attitude about that, and pull them into a room and have a conversation about why it matters and where their biases coming from and trying to counteract that. I think that active participation needs to happen on our part. The coast guard is recently put out there that headquarters now fund reservists to come in and backfill those activeduty folks male or female, that take maternity or paternity leave. The coast guard will bring a reservist and so that you feel once a better about being have someone cover your work for you. As a reservist is used because every set three or four people do a shortterm stint at places to better their career. It makes the unit feel good about letting those females or mail take maternity and paternity leave. And it allows that member to feel good about going and not feeling like the job is going to suffer. [applause] i like to squeeze in one final question, in our lastminute. U. S. Navy. My question also feels a little bit with family. Obviously you are a panel about changing culture. The question i have is have any of you been in a marriage or significant relationship where you have helped change the culture of your significant others mindset of what you should be doing and can you give any specific examples of things that youve said or who shall points turning points in your conversations with that person to help them be more supportive of how culture has changed and how critical your role is. I dont know if this is going to answer it. Communication, be very open and honest. My husband and i, weve talked about what we were going to do for our career paths. He said im going to be the working entity and i was like okay, im okay being a stayathome mom. Im okay transitioning into the reserves. Thats what i was okay with. Thats a hearttoheart the you guys have to sit down and discuss and figure out what the way ahead is. It is different for every relationship. Ours worked out so we are very honest about our plans for our careers. Thank you so much. Please join me in a warm round of applause for this wonderful panel. [applause] [applause] on behalf of them we like to show our appreciation. [applause] [inaudible conversation] again thank you so much for sharing your experience and perspective. [applause] this is where i get to ad lib. Just a little bit. I have some special request from all of you. If you like what you see or you been seeing for these three days, come to our board and there is an easy way to doing. If you see a badge or board member pan or if you see the picture or bios of one of us board members, you can identify us, feel free to approach us. It doesnt matter what your services. We have an air force staff Mark Sergeant she got promoted actually, it doesnt matter what your status is. You could be retired activeduty reservist. We need people to make stuff like this happen. And we have a variety of positions. We need new board ever supporting the services. We need people working this next year to show how services been on these three days. Come free to feel free to ask is how you can help out. If youre interested in starting a chapter, the police of the snow. We are about to start a chapter in hawaii. They have a hard time getting out to events like this. They are organized and they are setting up to do their own. We have been talking about with some of the canadians. So feel free to join us. One littleknown fact about myself, during my time in the navy, i served five years overseas, i was stationed in denmark, italy, cuba, and bosnia. One thing that if you see some of our peoples from our service overseas, engage with them. Learn from them. Especially from the scandinavian countries and the other countries, they are a little bit of head of us when it comes to gender integration so feel free to ask them how they do things. You learn from it. Its okay to respectfully engage and have a sense of humor and were going to get along, its okay. A while back we thought it would be interesting to hear from our International Counterparts and have them share their stories about women and their military. This year we have our first danish representative here. Stationed in denmark for three years. I find that personally satisfying. The numbers keep growing. I like to invite pamela safir but i quickly want to share something about our moderator ms. Davis. Not only does she have p air invents and other areas but shes been putting together things for over nine years. She is the board chair for roslyns foundation, which supports education of 700 girls in afghanistan. Believe me thats been challenging. She has been a big supportive of women in the military. I like to welcome her up to the stage. [applause] [applause] thank you. Good morning everyone. Thank you john for that plug for our school so its w ww bosnia grave of hope. Org. In case any of you are interested. It is an amazing school. We are worried every day for our girls because so far so good. We have a real treat you this morning. As john said, we have three fabulous women from denmark and sweden and from australia who have great carriers themselves and their forces. And we are going to talk about countries that are in many respects a bit more enlightened than our own in terms of gender diversity. And the policies that support women in the armed forces. I think youre going to find this really fascinating because there are so many interesting stories that ive learned in speaking with them so far. Were only going we are going to leave time for questions for you as well. Let us begin by some introductions. Id like to ask each of you to introduce yourselves. Beyond that ill also say why you chose to join the military in your country. Thank you susan. I am from denmark from the danish army. I am a military linguist. Im a reservist and i have always been a reservist. I joined the army ten years ago. I have gone three times, with the navy, kuwait and iraq. With the air force and i am currently embedded with the us forces. [applause] thank you i am very thrilled to be here and i am honored and im also humble to be here today with all of you talented women and men of course. For starters, i would said do not consider myself a pioneer. Since the first woman of denmark join the armed forces in 1962. Then when i prepared for this symposium. I realize the thing i am today, a female army officer, a captain captain, is something rather new and it is a role which is younger than me. I was born in 1982. Women in denmark werent allowed to join the combat unit until 1988. Group oft reached a sustainables self in recruitment. Each and every day at my job that there is a very firm male masculine culture among my male colleague. That i sort of have to stand up against. And actually that leads me to why i joined the army. I joined the army because i had graduated from university and of course thats a challenge in itself but i really wanted to do something that not many women before me had done. I met a female linguist when i did it internship at the Danish Embassy in ottawa and she was so inspiring to me she was so talented she had such a nice attitude she was a female role model and that was what triggered me, what made me apply. [applause] and captain robin bfrom the World Australian Navy currently working at the pentagon at australian Liaison Officer to the joint staff j4 inch u. S. Transform. Ive been in the service for 30 years. It sounds really horrifying to say that. It seems to have gone very quickly. I pretty much part of my time at the Defense Academy when i first joined out of school that was my longest time serving anywhere in my whole career that was three years straight. You keep moving around working with different people experiencing different jobs and that has kept it very fresh for me. During my career ive had about three or four commander appointments and various units. Ive served at sea for different capacities and six years. Ive often worked in maledominated areas and ive enjoyed those challenges that have arisen. And gone toe to toe with a number of bbless robust thanme. Out doing things a cryptic challenge during the Defense Academy time. I was well performing ahead of my male counterparts because they were quite as robust. In eager to achieve those goals as i was. People talking about leading from the front demonstrating the physical capacity it does come into play in so many ways. I really appreciate those stories. Although im not in one of those combat services environments as as much as you ladies. Im not sure i got any more of my career im certainly happy to take questions later. The reason i joined Defense Force none of my friends were doing it. It sounded interesting. It had a venture attached to it. It gave me a diversity education it gave me guaranteed career got me out of tasmania where i grew up. [laughter] and a lot of my friends were looking to do something going to australian mainland as well. That was the way i sort of chose to forge my path my family were mystified at what i was trying to do and take the career path we were in a military family but very supportive nonetheless. Thats pretty much why i joined. I chose the navy because i honestly thought the uniform looked better and the opportunity to travel the world was much more ready for me in that service than the other two that were on offer at the time. Thats part of the reason i chose probably a little superficial at the time but it worked well for me. [laughter] im so looking forward to the conversation today and im very happy to be here. And talk to you inspirational people in the room. Thank you. [applause] my name is janice, and from the Swedish Armed forces from swedish navy. I joined the navy and 95, 1995, 24 years now. At that time we had only crossed description service in sweden that was male only, females could voluntarily join. I did that in 95 and then Service Officer i specializing bwarfare and antisubmarine warfare. Ive been serving on board various ships, mine hunters, b and ive had the privilege to be the Commanding Officer on a mine hunter and quarter and commander for the 42nd embassy quadrant. And with my current sufficient a year ago at head of Recruitment Branch within a Training Department in the Swedish Armed forces headquarters. In that position im there responsible for giving direction on how to do recruitments in the Swedish Armed forces to be conducted, how we are to be prioritized, what we should do etc. One of the biggest focus in sweden right now is growing. We have for the first time in a number of years i think its the same for you guys, got more money, we get more equipment, we need more personnel and 2018 sweden reintroduced the conscript system. This time now its a genderneutral for all men and women. Its a big focus area for us in sweden now. And why did i joined the navy . I was actually engaged to join the youth summer camps in the navy and i thought, this would be exciting. I just continued. [laughter] [applause] jenny, you mentioned conscription. Maybe you could talk a little bit more about how that actually works. At this and we reintroduced this in 2018 and that is of course the security situation involving overseas. And it was a genderneutral, that means but its not everybody. We dont need all the 18yearolds that are born in 2001 for example. But everybody that turns 18 in sweden, male and female, has to fill in a form where they describe themselves, the background they have etc. Then out of those a number is selected to do tests and then we pick out the one that is most suitable. It doesnt have nothing to do with gender. Just the most suitable person that fits requirements that we find. You do your conscription and then its between four and 15 months. From that we recruit the enlisted sailors and soldiers in specialist officer commissioned officers and service. You have to do military service in order to have a career in the armed forces. Can you object to being in the armed forces . [laughter] we do not want to have those. We dont want to force people. We dont need to. But if you have a special skill for example 18 years old in sweden many of them dont take drivers license. If you have a drivers license its very likely you will be called in because we need it. You can say that you dont want to but if we pick you, then you have to do it. Australia doesnt have conscription, we do have what we offer is a gap year opportunity for people to come do a try before you buy. We havent had the need for conscription for many years. I think we did it during vietnam that was probably the only time. I could be slightly off on that fact. I dont see that happening in australia due to our situation and recruitment levels. We are generally quite well supported by the public and recruitment levels are quite good. We are also expanding our recruitment activities over the next few years to support our increased capability requirements. Well see any issues with that. Currently around 58,000 active duty personnel. Relatively small in comparison to the u. S. Military. Our population bases around year 23, 24 million people. Comparatively speaking we are probably not that different per capita. Im really happy we raised this question because its one of in my opinion is one of the great issues within the danish armed forces. The conscription because we do not have genderneutral conscription in denmark. We do have conscription, we cant script a certain proportion of men when they reach the age of majority, which is 18 in denmark. Then women we say we have the right to serve on conscription like terms. At the same time, in my opinion one of the biggest issues with the system is that we do not have the same obligation as men where as the men have to perform the entire or have to go through the entire training period. Females can drop out. What happens i guess we neurostimulator in that room in the first days that many of your male colleagues will look at you and think, who will be the first dropout among the women . Which i think is a very crucial when it comes to the reputation of women but also the support you get from your male surroundings when you are serving. One thing ive noticed is that we have a lot of policies describing how we should support diversity in the armed forces in denmark and how we should develop our recruitment and so on. We never discuss the politicians in denmark to never discuss female conscription. There is no political will to take up that question. Even when we recently got a new female minister of defense it has not been discussed. What percent of the Defense Forces are women in denmark . Another very interesting question. Thank you. [laughter] if you are looking in general at the ministry of defense Resource Area its 16. 1 percent women. If you are looking purely at military personnel its 7. 6 percent. If you are looking at the conscript like soldiers. Last year in 2018 17 percent of them were women. However, if you look at private in the army or in the armed forces in general they are only 8. 5 percent. That supports the idea of female dropouts. We start outside having 17 percent but then all the sudden its down to 8. 5. What is it in australia and sweden . Currently in active duty do 18. 5 percent. Different services are slightly different. The army is the lower of the group at about 14 percent. But the navy and air force are around 20 , just over 20 . We actually have a goal of reaching 24 percent for air force and navy by 2023 and army at 15 percent by 2023. We are actually doing really well against that in the last five or six years increased four percent participation. I think we are getting there. Senior leadership not quite as high proportionately but that has improved over the last 10 or years as well. Some of the policies are in place to encourage women and support them getting to the higher ranks. Obviously the numbers coming through to make it much more available with an option when you see the difference layers of the organization coming through the system. Sweden in total is 17 percent within the military personnel its 11. In different categories you could say in the conscript area last year it was 16 percent but that was the first year of the genderneutral we are aiming for 20 and up to 30 within a couple years from now. I would say its quite low but were getting there in the numbers are increasing. Its the same as it australia, the navy and air force has the highest numbers than the navy and the lowest in the army. She made the transition from submarines to recruitment, which is a pretty big transition. What kinds of tactics are you finding are really successful for you in your new role . What i find successful is that i have been very out there in the operational field. I know what is needed out there and what we need to do and ive been working with the young people because when you come to the headquarters the middleage gets a little bit higher and people tend to forget when you sit in the bhow hot it is outside. Its very important that you keep it. Thats something i bring with me. What about recruiting women . You had some interesting comments earlier. I think what we have found out through surveys and everything is that women tend and demand dont make the same advertisement. Females want to know things. Females want to go through everything. They want to know whats in it for me. What do i contribute with . What can i contribute with . And men, they can see machine guns going off and say i want to join. But a little bit like that the men, we already we get them. Thats not a problem. The problem is to address the young female to make them understand they have a place in the armed forces. In the service weve done they have very little knowledge about the armed forces. If you dont have knowledge you dont understand whats in it for me. We need to get out the message about what is the armed forces but everybody has a place. This year we had a big campaign that we called come as you are. And showed different persons in the armed forces right now. Not only females but females and others. After this guide may be the typical that you think in the armed forces. This is very positive among the target work. The young female. Is that similar in australia . Weve done a lot of Media Campaign in recent years to try and encourage a broader section of the community to join the armed forces. Our women recruitment activity as part of the broader inclusion campaign. To recruit people with different cultural backgrounds because we generally been stereotyped in an organization that has slowly decreased over the years and become more inclusive and Advertising Campaigns are very much giving the visuals of people from different cultural backgrounds, more women, we have specific campaigns targeted at women to try to encourage participation. We also have a number of programs that are trying to support Women Participation things like leadership camps, work experience, leadership and men touring activities that are going on regularly. We have specific female recruiting teams in some areas. We also have increased recruiting targets in some cases for different services. We have all the jobs open to women now all the combat activities and army open to women. Only a small portion have taken that out because the jobs have been open up until around 2017. Having women in submarines now thats been the case for many years. Weve had a lot of success but we continue to build on that and reinforce what weve done in the past can you talk a little bit more about your leader caps for women. It has students coming in who are navy bases and military bases and spending time with military members on the base and understanding what the military is all about. Talking about leadership, personal Development Just exposing them to some of the opportunities and demystifying the organization to them because often women do not consider it a viable career path. Men dont seem to have that quite as much but we think the percent of the oh some ofour services are a lot lower in the army. Why is that . Were not going to attract women easily to a number of those jobs but what we can do is show them whats going on and increase parental understanding of what the service is all about because if you dont have your family or peer support for you joining that you really dont have much of a chance of getting through the practice. Its tough, its not easy to go through the recruitment activities. Its a long process. Its confronting when you are not used to being tested and prodded and assessed physically. Understanding those processes also a part of that engagement. We get out there into the schools we go to seminars and we are exposed. We go out and bang the drums as much as we can to give people the opportunity to understand us and ive done recruiting for about four years of my career ive been lucky to select our future generation servicemen and women from joint perspective. And ive lost that bbive loved that opportunity. Its been inspirational to have the exposure to the community and try to promote my service in my Defense Force in that capacity. What about denmark . Im guessing based on the lack of policy toward conscription is probably less than the leadership side to recruit women. Actually we have this type of policy which is similar to australia we call it the policy of diversity. This effort to recruit more women is part of a broader strategy to recruit other groups from society which are not prone to join the armed forces. However, we didnt succeed in achieving our goals. Some of the things we are working with like australia, is to make female role models in the armed forces small visible by simply making posters. With short statements on them. We are trying to promote the idea of female values going hand in hand with service in the armed forces. Like you can be the mother of two as myself and still be deployed with the armed forces. We are trying to do that and various recruitment events but we also have q a sessions on our webpages where female officers answer questions of potential recruits. We tend to ask female officers to do the briefings during their treatment. We call them recruitment seminars. Its where we invite him potential cadets in for briefing and testing. Thats just some of the things we do. Are all jobs open to women in the danish forces . Yes they are. And with regards to testing and demands, women and men, we put the same demands for women it and women, however, as i said before, theres a various firm of masculine culture in the danish armed forces. For some reason there are more women in the air force and the Danish Emergency Management Agency then in the army and the navy. Ive been wondering why is that so because we do more or less the same recruitment campaigns. We have to meet more or less the same standards and demands. And a lot of the jobs are the same. I think its a question about culture. The Danish Air Force is only 70 years old. The Danish Emergency Management Agency didnt exist until 1992. Whereas the army was formed in 1614 and the navy was formed in 15 10. Theyve spent decades nurturing this very firm masculine culture where as these efforts to recruit more women into the armed forces existed. When the Danish Air Force and Emergency Management agency were formed. Speaking of culture, do you want to mention the issue that exists . I think all of you have it to one extent or the other in terms of language. Right. [laughter] its somehow anecdotal. In the danish armed forces, danish in general you cannot say maam to a female officer. He can only say sir. When im commanding one of the units at home and i say good morning unit, they will answer me back good morning sir. You two both have similar situations or examples. [laughter] had been a little taken aback when im deployed with other International Navy or military a number of those cultures did not recognize the female man and also mistakenly called sir because people get flustered and then they revert to what they are used to saying. But one of the things i find quite interesting is how if im walking along a pathway and i with a male counterpart whose junior to me, that person will get paid respects and saluted before myself because they will defer to the male counterparts that im with. And not recognize the rank situation between us. Its really interesting and i understand theres some cultural similarities and cultural differences where people in company with other people if im with a white male that person will get saluted before me even though im the same. Its an interesting thing that people defer to when they see a couple of people in uniform its one of those funny things. Have been addressed as that also that was in sweden but in another country and they said i said you can call me maam. We dont do that here. Another conversation we have earlier this morning before the session started kind of relates to the b word that was brought up. In the question before it really relates to how women are perceived whether its in your disciplinary action or your management style, how would you deal with that . How do each of you deal with that . [laughter] it has been interesting to see how ive been received in different capacities. I was explaining to the Group Earlier that we have a situation we have a 360 reporting that happens every couple years. With the Navy Leadership and development activities. This is trying to sort of break down some of the cultural issues we had over the years with his gender and Workplace Behavior in more general terms as well. One of those things that ive always felt was, im a pretty personable person. I support people, not dictatorial, i dont direct and play the power game. Emma Team Oriented leader. However, when im in certain jobs and not perceived that way. Maybe i have to come across a little differently because its the group im working in or the command im a part of. Its interesting how the perception of me i thought was so markedly different in a couple different jobs ive had over the last 10 years or so. I know i can be the b word on a number of occasions is not the best way to lead your people and he seen as a role model we talked about earlier. I tried to be genuine i tried to be myself but also understand the group im dealing with and try to play to that in some respects as well. Sometimes it takes you out of your comfort zone and sometimes being that hard yes you will do it that way we will go that way across this issue. Sometimes you can be called a b word but if thats the only way they can describe it, thats fine. [applause] i agree, i recognize what you are saying and what i think also is if a male commander commands in this way and then if i do it as a female then i will be judged in another way harder. But that is also i think if you are a minority you are always seen. You can never hide. If you do something good, thats a good thing. Then everybody will know that. If you do some mistake everybody will also know that. Male counterparts can do more mistakes i would say then i can do. The private sector is no different. I would say to me its like this, if you confirm a prejudiced view you will sort of, its harder, if a woman gets kind of sensitive or aggressive in a female way, we are contrary to what men always thought our weak side. Its kind of not fair. They can act differently without meeting the same resistance. I have no further comment. [laughter] i know that in my last job i had command unit and my command was a female, my Operations Officer was a female, i had a boss who is a female, that was the most female Oriented Team in my whole career. It was the first time i ever had a boss is a female. I never had a female boss i guess thats probably similar to a lot of your experiences as well. That it was quite interesting to work with that dynamic and there was no difference from what i could tell to working with the male dominated command team. I think everybody appreciated the different approaches we all brought to the table. I remember one of them telling me, we had a particular personnel issue which is very farreaching around the unit but how i dealt with that i remember my saying i didntrealize you could be such a hard off with people who were really expecting me to roll over and not take it as a serious as we think. It was interesting to see people always expect if you are a female, you are softer approach. A soft touch. [laughter] at times, sure when the situation calls for it but we dont get to these positions without doing the hard jobs and actually putting in the effort to make sure we actually perform to the level our service expects us to perform at. [applause] i think sometimes in these situations where it comes to confrontations i sometimes have success with asking questions. Just being polite asking questions applying a bit of sense of humor to the situation. An example was when i went to kuwait last year 2018 the first thing my commander said to me was, right, so you have two small children and now you are here. I was like, what am i supposed to say to him . I asked him, would you ask the same question if my husband was here . Then he was like, no. Actually i wouldnt. He got so embarrassed. Because he actually is one of the men promoting female officers in the armed forces. Good for you. [laughter] [applause] the me too movement caught on fire here in the u. S. And i know that it reached far beyond the u. S. Can you talk a little bit about how it may or may not have affected your country and your Defense Forces. In sweden there was a huge me too. Also within the armed forces. The female armed forces raised up and talked and this was like up plug that was released. Actually it was really hard when it came out a couple years ago but it has changed. It has made us call attention to this and not leaning back to think that we have reached this we are finished with it. If it is out in society if you have problems in a society you will have them in your armed forces of course. Whos responsible for fixing it . We all are. But at the command problem. Its not the females who are going to fix it. But im in the double role so its my problem as a commander but not as a female. That is something that weve had a lot of discussions and it has changed. Its been a cultural barrier that has changed. In what way . Because we are open about it. We are talking about it and discussing we have been discussing it in the working places all over the armed forces. Not just the females. Everybody. Our higher commanders have put attention to it. And you cannot hide. We probably didnt have such a wave of me too responsiveness in the australian Defense Force. Weve had a lot of activity over the last 20 years or so which is focused on sexual abuse inappropriate behavior in the workplace. Trying to make it pretty much very clear that its not acceptable in any of our workplaces. In the cultural training some annual manual training training within recruitment processes has made it pretty well understood situation where its not tolerated. Weve also had a number of commissions in the child sex abuse and issues where we had junior recruits a lot of those cases have come out in the media weve also had another investigation and responses into other abuse in the military with people making claims about abuse through the service environment. All of those have really put it on the table of the general population to understand that its not tolerated. We will deal with it we apologize the service and the organization has apologized for that culture that was rampant. Not to say we are not having issues still. Its just not as widespread but it is dealt with at the best way we possibly can and hits all during the Education Programs and information that its not to be tolerated. And we called out all these activities and these campaigns support our organizational community to respond to it. We are a reflection of society. We have things happening our services that happen in society more broadly. Its something we will continue to tackle and be very open and forthright about as well. In denmark we have recently our veterans sender has done a survey among veterans female veterans and what came as a shock to not only me but most of my colleagues is that most female veterans have in some way or another in denmark experienced some kind of genderbased abusive behavior or some kind of genderbased harassment. I dont believe we have yet implemented any measures against this kind of behavior but its definitely something that we have to work on. I think from my perspective its a dilemma because if you want to include women on equal terms with men, what does it mean in denmark the way we have tried to include women in the armed forces has also been by letting men and women live in the same barracks when we are deployed. Having men and women sleep in the same tent when we are doing exercises and so on. On my own account when i started 10 years ago we only had one shower. If you females we were we had to shower together with the men. Which was a must say that was odd. I would say we are fully integrated. We live together in the barracks and quarters and we lived together we share cabins on board the ships. There is no difference if you are male or female and i understand this is maybe nothing that you can do but in sweden that is okay. Its not a problem. When i get the question, how do you deal with it . Isnt that a problem . No, its a matter of respect for each other. It has nothing to do with gender. Its a matter of respect. You have to be able to fight together, to be in combat together, of course you have to be able to, to live together. I think submarines would probably be the only place where male and female crewmembers actually live the same mass text with each other and was driven by the fact that we could never get six females to stay at the one time so we be missing opportunities to send submarines to stay with qualified personnel. And restricting womens opportunities in that capacity. Apart from that we all have pretty much segregated accommodations and we have designated facilities for males and females in most areas where its possible sometimes its not quite so great but we have common shower facilities where males and females go naked together. Im not sure if that was where. I thought thats what you are referring to. [laughter] we havent gone that far. [laughter] neither have we. [laughter] actually whats interesting is that its not like that anymore. Now they put showers up but that wasnt like that when i started 10 years ago. Something has changed obviously. [laughter] must take time for a few questions or we will just continue this conversation. Are there any questions in the audience . Go right ahead. The United States marine corps. A quick note on maam i have and counter that with other forces. It seems a lot of ladies together because getting to good morning ladies instead of good morning maam, still a work in progress. There was a lot of discussion about your recruiting efforts. I was wondering if you could speak to some of the family leave policies. In sweden maybe some of you guys were here two years ago i sat at the International Panel and told you guys about the swedish system we have a very good parental system in sweden and both women or mothers and fathers stay home with the children up to 1. 5 years. He get paid for it. Its not just a female problem, if you are getting family and have children there was a discussion earlier you get a female and then when is she going to get pregnant . If i got a young person i said one of the going to have parental leave. [laughter] that has nothing to do with in sweden actually men and women they tend to stay home longer. Mothers tend to stay home longer but its getting there. Me and my husband we split set so i stayed home nine months, he stayed home nine months. [applause] in australia the last 10 years would increase what we call our Flexible Work arrangements. Thats been a really Good Opportunity for women to be retained in our services. Once they come back off Maternity Leave they can work part time, they can job share, they can work remotely from home. Thats encouraged quite a bit now to experience personnel because we have a situation where they would leave us to having children or not undertake the service or operational duties. Now we try and create a buffer opportunity for them and we also provide that to the males. The women who are trying to do some of the career milestone postings have the opportunity to do those jobs as they take the Flexible Work arrangement opportunities and its becoming much more culturally acceptable for the mail to take over those opportunities. And provide the family Domestic Support requirement in the family unit. Around six percent of our personnel are currently undertaking Flexible Work arrangements in the navy and the air force. In one percent and the army just a bit behind the other two services when it comes to personnel. At its been a really positive thing for australia and our Defense Force. What ive seen is Senior Leadership has been very supportive of this and its because of that number of women coming through the ranks and they are getting to the senior ranks and they say why cant we do this . Why cant we be a bit more flexible. We can come in and out of the service during reserve time. Come back to reserved time, come into permanent active service time. Much more flexible, and that is really helping our service. A in denmark we have torrential deep system as well. We are paid for 13 months of leave, and we can shared between the father and the mother, however more often the mother takes more leave than the father. In australia we have Flexible Work arrangements. We have Flexible Working hours. Raise,e i would like to it is anecdotal again, when i left for my second parental leave, someone else took over my portfolio. And it was an older man who was higher ranking. When i got back i had nothing to do. He took over all of my assignments, so i had to fight to get back my assignments. I would have wished my commander would have been more aware of this issue. Him i finally put myself together after half a year, being stressed out. I told him i have nothing to do. You always work so hard. I wasnt aware. Himink i would have wanted to be more aware from the beginning. , ithaving helped me more would be nice for a female role model as well. But she wasnt there. Part of it. Supporting those opportunities and understanding what people are going through. People in those command jobs to recognize that, it is really important. Thank you so much for coming. Back to thercle conscription in being genderneutral and tying it to the me too movement. When we see people are gender integrated or fully integrated, do you think that will help with the me too movement in providing that mutual respect. Everybody is required to move itenmark and australia is because of the conscriptions policies now. Sweden it will help. They are equal terms. It has nothing to do with your gender. I think it will help, if that will answer the questions. With integrating gender and making it to where everyone is equal, is that helping with Sexual Assault . Going down, has it been going up . Did you ask if we have problems with it with it . If the gender neutrality with sexualo do assault. We are working with it. It is more open now, these discussions about it. We thought of ourselves being in that situation. Have clear regulations, we have the policies, we have everything. The me too has helped us, open our eyes and realize things are happening. I wish we could continue this conversation. Thank you in please join me in thinking these Inspiring Women leaders. We would like to thank you for your participation and sharing your experiences. Thank you. Welcome back. What did you think of the afternoon break . Glad you enjoyed it. Put on a production like this, it takes a team effort. Lots of times there are many talented people behind the scenes. I would like to take a moment to recognize those behind the scenes who help us with light, sound, camera, av in particular