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COPYRIGHT 1998 Transaction Publishers, Inc.
Background
Twice a year the Army surveys its troops on a wide range of issues. In the Fall of 1994 an interesting set of questions was asked related to Army women. Specifically, soldiers were asked to state the extent to which they agreed or disagreed (or neither agreed nor disagreed) with statements like "Women should be assigned to any specialties for which they can pass a test to qualify."
At the time of the survey, legislation had recently been passed by Congress and signed by the President to permit women to serve on combat ships and in combat aircraft. However, the Armys policy forbidding women's participation in combat, which was administrative and not legislative in origin, remained unchanged. The exclusion of women from combat meant that a majority of all Army slots were reserved for men; the policy also had the effect of restricting women officers' opportunities for promotion to top positions. At the time there were about 950 generals, of which thirty-one were African American men and ten were Hispanic men. Eleven were women, one of whom was African American.
Opinions of Army Personnel(1)
In the Army survey soldiers were asked to respond to each question using one of five options: strongly agree, agree, neither, disagree and strongly disagree. For the purposes of this article, the "strongly agree" and the "agree" responses were collapsed into one category, as were the "strongly disagree" and "disagree." Thus, three responses are presented rather than five.
The responses of enlisted personnel were divided into three groups: 1) Privates, Privates First Class, Corporals, and Specialists 4: PV2-CPL/SPC; 2) Sergeants, and Staff Sergeants: SGT/SSG; and 3) Sergeants First Class, Master Sergeants and Sergeant Majors: SFC-CSM/SGM. Commissioned officers were divided into two groups: 1) Second and First Lieutenants and Captains: 2LT-CPT; and 2) Majors, Lieutenant Colonels, and Colonels (and a handful of Generals): MAJ-COLplus. The second group of officers would have served for more than a decade and probably would expect to stay in the military until retirement. They can be considered professionals. Policy is set by officers, but enlisted personnel outnumber them roughly six to one; further, senior enlisted personnel hold influential and responsible leadership positions. Thus, even though enlisted personnel may not...
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