Transcriber: Translate TED Reviewer: Reiko Bovee
In 1990 I was commissioned as Second Lieutenant
in the United States Marine Corps.
Only 3% of the officers...
(Applause) (Cheers)
Only 3% of the officers were female.
That meant that 97% of my peers, my coworkers, and my bosses were men.
Back then, women were excluded from combat, prohibited from flying,
and kept from all kinds of other jobs as well.
Some of the reasons?
Well, in 1995, the Speaker of the House
said that women can't be in the trenches
because they were too susceptible to infections.
(Laughter)
Others said that well, men would divert their attention
to protecting helpless women instead of focusing on the enemy.
Others still muttered that, well, they just weren't sure about women
during "that time of the month."
The current Commandant of the Marine Corps says that
women are a sexual distraction.
But the most cited reason?
Well, women don't have as much muscle mass as men
and therefore the weaker sex is just too weak.
There is an official Marine Corps Order,
"The Essential Subjects Training Battle Skills Handbook."
This order contains information on how to dig a foxhole,
how to conduct first aid and how to do physical training
among other things.
I'd like to show you some parts of that book.
This is a figure that shows the proper running form and technique
the Marine Corps expects from a male. They all can do it really well.
(Laughter)
A few pages later, there is a slide that shows what they expect the female
to look like when she runs.
(Laughter)
We were seen as weaker.
Back then, we only ran half the distance men did
because it was thought that we could, and should,
only do half of what a man can do.
But actually when we were allowed to do so,
we did the same training as the men.
Later on, there is a slide that shows the proper technique
for the bent knee sit up.
Here's the slide for the men.
Here's the slide for the women.
(Laughter)
There is just the one big difference between the two!
(Laughter)
These slides do a great job of illustrating
how leadership viewed us then.
Their image of us was either weak, and lacking in strength, or sexual.
And by the way, this official Marine Corps Order
was reviewed, approved and signed by Peter Pace
who eventually became the most senior man in the military
as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Even though we endured all those comments,
we, Marines who are female, didn't see ourselves as weak.
We saw ourselves as strong.
And we focused on doing our job, and doing our job
as if lives depended on it because they do.
We only subtly challenged the mores of the military.
We didn't ask for a change in standards to accomodate our different gender;
we only asked for the same opportunity to meet the same standards as the men.
When the Gulf War hit in 1991,
units in the military realized that they could not go to war
without their whole team, and that team included women.
Eventually, over 8,000 women served in that war.
And back then, there was public angst
about what would happen to America's psyche
if mothers, daughters, and sisters came home in body bags.
Truth is: the casualty of a father, or a son or a brother is no less tragic.
Gender does not discriminate in death.
But here we are. It's 2012.
After 20 years, I know a few advantages that women in the military have.
One, I never had to worry about earning only 72%
of the income a man made.
I always earned 100% of what my male counterparts earned.
(Applause)
I also didn't have to worry about what to wear.
(Laughter)
I had a uniform, and that uniform is a great equalizer.
I was seen first as a Marine.
Civilian men tended not to want to mess with me.
They assumed I could probably kill them
with a gun, a knife, or even my bare hands.
(Laughter)
But you know, there were some disadvantages too.
Just like Ginger Rogers had to do everything Fred Astaire did,
but backwards and in high heels.
We had to do everything the men did, with men's fat combat boots,
and our hair up, above our collar, neat and tidy without any pins or clips showing.
And unfortunately, there is always an idiot or two out there
who was curious about the possibility of sex with one of us.
It was inconvenient, annoying, and problematic,
and not an issue to be taken too lightly.
And as good as it is that men didn't want to mess
with someone who could kill them,
Well, the civilian men didn't often want to go on a date
with one a second time either!
I remember once, I was in Washington D.C.
I was on a date in a fancy restaurant,
you know, the low lighting, the white linen table cloths.
As I was fidgeting around with the flatware on the table before me
making the small talk before dinner came,
I picked up my sterling silver knife next to my crystal wine glass,
I picked up that knife and proceeded to demonstrate to my date the proper way
to hold a knife to more effectively kill.
(Laughter)
And by the way, it's hilt in the fist, blade down the forearm, sharp side out
so after a crack to the jaw, you can slit the throat.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
Our relationship never got beyond the friendship stage,
believe it or not!
But those old Colonels and Generals who were in charge when I first came in,
they came of age before Title IX;
they never saw a little girl bloody up a little boy
on the hockey or soccer fields.
They were a generation who thought all women should wear lipstick.
When I was an Officer Candidate, every Friday after my rifle was inspected.
I was inspected on my ability to properly apply blood-red lipstick.
Thank goodness we have a new generation of leaders out there.
You know, we've come a long way.
And the Marine Corps knows there is a glass ceiling
and we have been trying hard to break it.
We're cracking at it, and I don't know of any corporations out there
where women have advanced so much in the past twenty years.
And that ceiling is going to continue to crack
as men continue to insist on having us as full members of their team
and as women continue to serve as outstanding service members.
Now, women can fly in the Marine Corps.
They are pilots.
And this year, for the first time, women were authorized
to be in some areas of combat, and that's new.
We've been there for a long time,
but now we are finally authorized to be in combat.
And you know what?
The Marine Corps did not lower its standards to do this.
It's just that leadership realized
that women aren't as weak as was once thought.
And all that sexual assault, harassment?
That's no longer an issue just to be dealt with by women,
it's now an issue to be dealt with by women and men.
We've made such great strides.
We have all changed so many of our own paradigms.
A woman's leadership is necessary;
it is essential in this new era of war fighting.
Right now, the percentage of female Marine Corps officers
has doubled since 1990.
I would like to leave you with one last image.
This summer, for the first time,
the military saw a female parade commander
at Marine Barracks, 8th & I in Washington, DC.
That's the ceremonial grounds of the Marine Corps.
And there she is! In front, center,
and leading a group of outstanding men.
(Applause)
I am confident that the women who are coming behind me,
they are not just going to break that glass ceiling;
they are going to shatter it and get rid of it for good.
Semper Fidelis!
(Applause)