Freedom of expression. And that legacy continues after she left. So she certainly made her mark on the world. And certainly showed that shes unflappable in the face of criticism and unflappable in the face of an attempt to undo all of the work that that fine organization is doing. For me, shes a great role model of how we conduct ourselves as women, in the face of what can be a little bit of a backslide from time to time. Its nice to have people we can see who embody strength and thick skin and certainly youve talked to you wrote in your book about how much you have how far youve come in this regard in in not letting the turkeys get you down. Your personal story makes the case for Public Policy that supports women, how do we get men to be allies in the fight to fight to further these policies when they dont experience these things personally . How do we make men care about feminism . Is we share our stories. Again not to be a broken record, but humanizing these issues just as i for exa
Actually come to the course. So thats a key part of that piece, and then when it comes to the communications, clearly a communications is a big part of our trust. We need to explain why the gender neutral standards, how were going to ensure that everybody meets those standards, both men and women, why theyre necessary for the occupation in the first place because theres some question as to is it really the right task that should be done in these standards, in these different moss, and then that by communicating that a little more effectively than we have, this is going to help us build the trust for both men and women to want to continue down that pipeline for those different areas. Thats an important part of the implementation plan. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, please. Sue fulton, im the chair of the u. S. Military board of visitors. Former signal officer. Obviously, we are dealing with a question of Critical Mass too and i want to go back to that because i want to follow up a little bi
Try to keep any kind of evaluation out of this. So the marine corps has done a bunch of different studies and research. They began with a actually, they began with the infantry officer course which they opened to women in 2012 and asked for volunteers. Women, if you want to come to try out the infantry officer course, youre invited to attend. At the same time that they were doing that, they also began developing a set of combat proxy tests. The combat proxy test, they were six largely upper body based i should say Upper Body Strength based proxy tests that they evaluated the performance of 409 women and 379 female marines against and what they found from this combat proxy test was that about well not about, but 66 of the very good performers were men and 34 were women, and then the highest performing categories, it was 92 were men and 8 were women. So this initial Screening Test that they developed showed that there was certainly a percentage of women that fell into the good and the ve
I should have asked how many civilians were in the audience. Yes, excellent. [laughter] host it is no exaggeration to say there is a wealth of knowledge and experience in this room, and thats why were going to try to make this more of a conversation than a series of presentations. Were looking forward to that. This discussion is really about the central question of unit cohesion and leadership. In the battlefield, especially in the close fight. We have with us four people that i think provide a great perspective across the board. Dr. Megan mckenzie from the university of sydney. Shes a senior lecturing in the government. The center for International Security at the university of sydney. Research crosses gender studies , Security Studies and , international development. Shes published in top journals, including Security Studies. Her first book, female soldiers in sierra leone, and the newest book, beyond the military and myth women cant fight, debunks ss the belief that women cant fight
Benjamin Freedman is the Policy Center Assistant. In this position, he aids scholars and program directors in research and grant projects, manages day-to-day Policy Center logistics, and assists in the center’s development. Prior to joining MEI, he completed a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations. He recently traveled to Jordan for four months where he assisted with research at a Jordanian think tank pertaining to public perceptions of the Arab-Israeli conflict and American affairs in the Middle East.