Posted: February 2, 2016 2:54 PM
Disproportionate Number of Female Navy COs Fail in 2015
By OTTO KREISHER, Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON — As the Navy moves aggressively to recruit and retain women and is opening all its jobs to them, last year produced a troubling statistic, with a disproportionate number of women among the commanding officers replaced early for misconduct or poor performance.
Eight of the 21 commanding officers punitively relieved in calendar 2015 were women, according to Navy news releases and verified by the Bureau of Naval Personnel (BUPERS).
That means nearly 40 percent of the fired commanding officers were women, even though females hold only 82 of the Navy’s nearly 1,500 command positions, or about 5 percent of the total, according to BUPERS data.
Three of the removed female COs were captains, one who commanded a strategic communications wing and two who led medical units. One was a commander who was CO of Naval Computer and Communications Station Sicily. Four were lieutenant commanders, three of whom had commanded ships in the combat fleet — two coastal patrol ships and one mine countermeasures vessel — which are cherished opportunities for surface warfare officers to get an early command at sea.
Most of the Navy’s notifications of the removals stated the common reason as “loss of confidence” by their superiors in the relieved officers’ ability to command. But one of the medical captains was removed due to evidence of “toxic and abusive command climate,” and the other for “command climate” reasons.
Two of the ship COs relieved were cited for allegations of “misconduct” and one for “inappropriate behavior.” The commander in Sicily was removed during an investigation for “improper civilian hiring practices.”
The unusually high rate of women removed from command raises a number of troubling questions.
Could it be that the Navy’s push to increase the numbers and status of women resulted in female officers being elevated into positions for which they were not prepared by professional experience and training, or suited for by character?
Or could the removals be an indication of bias from above, since all of the relieving superiors were male, or resistance from below to having women in command?
Retired Navy Capt. Lory Manning, now with Women in International Security, said, “The 2015 numbers are certainly startling, especially for women COs.” Manning said she has noticed increasing removals for “command climate,” adding, “My own experience is that some crews and reporting seniors may unconsciously have different standards for men and women.”
Mackenzie Eaglen, the well-regarded national security analyst at the American Enterprise Institution, said: “I would agree there is, indeed, all indications of a serious problem. But it is unclear, without more data, what the specifics of it are. Without that, the Navy cannot change for the better, I would assume.”
The Navy is attempting to discover the reasons for the removal of the women COs, as it does for all commanding officers who are relieved, said Lt. Cmdr. Nathan Christensen, public affairs officer for the Chief of Naval Personnel.
“We are always concerned when any commanding officer does not succeed in command. We expect our commanding officers to uphold the highest personal and professional standards in this highly demanding and stressful position,” Christensen said. “Any time a commanding officer is relieved it is a concern, regardless of gender. Whenever a commanding officer is relieved, we investigate and try to learn how and why it happened.
“Our selection process for command is very good,” Christensen said, with an average of 98.4 percent of COs successfully completing their command tours.
“We believe the number of women commanding officers relieved in 2015 was an outlier,” he said, noting that no women COs were relieved in 2013 and 2014, when 21 and 18 male commanders were removed, respectively. His data showed five women were relieved in 2012 and one in 2011, compared to 20 and 21 men, respectively.
A Navy official speaking on background echoed the “outlier” characterization for the number of women relieved in 2015, but thought the lack of female COs removed the two previous years also were “outliers.”
“When we look at the spike in 2015, we need more data to see if it’s an outlier, or trend. We pay close attention to every single one of the reliefs. We want to start digging closer into their careers. Did we miss something? As for women COs, 2016 is going to be critical year to see if ’15 was an outlier,” the official said.
Christensen said BUPERS is conducting a comprehensive review of its performance evaluation process for all officers during their career prior to command selection, to determine if it is considering the correct things.
But, he added, “women make up 18 percent of the U.S. Navy and they are indispensable to the national security mission. Their record of performance has been nothing less than outstanding.”
http://www.seapowermagazine.org/stories/20160202-failed.html
