Gender Issues

GAO surveyed more than 700 men and women in the Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps to obtain their views on their personal readiness, the readiness of both sexes in their unit, and unit readiness (defined as their unit's ability to undertake its wartime mission). The majority of men and women that GAO surveyed about their personal readiness said that they were well or very well prepared to do their wartime jobs considering their training and their physical and mental preparedness. More than 70 percent of men and women said that they could deploy on short notice with no problems or only minor ones. In regard to perceptions about the readiness of men and women in their units, men and women agreed that they were trained equally to complete their wartime missions and would do their wartime jobs equally well. Generally, men believed that they were more physically prepared and were more willing to deploy. Women believed that both sexes were equally prepared physically and equally willing to deploy. Finally, both men and women perceived their units to be ready to perform their wartime missions. Gender stereotyping was often raised during GAO's discussion groups with women. They spoke of negative stereotyping concerning pregnancy, physical strength, and job performance. Women also said they believed that they needed to prove themselves repeatedly. In other discussion groups, men often cited the issue of preferential treatment for women. Servicemembers--both men and women--said in GAO's discussion groups that managing the impact of pregnancies on individual units was the primary gender-related issue the military needed to address.

GAO noted that: (1) the majority of men and women that GAO surveyed about their personal readiness said they were well or very well prepared to perform their wartime jobs considering their training, physical, and mental preparedness; (2) over 70 percent of men and women said they could deploy on short notice with no problems or only minor problems; (3) GAO also asked servicemembers about their perceptions regarding the readiness of men and women in their units; (4) GAO's questions dealt with training and job performance, willingness and availability to deploy, and physical preparedness to deploy; (5) men and women agreed that they were trained equally to complete their wartime missions and would perform their wartime jobs equally well; (6) generally, men believed that they were more physically prepared and were more willing to deploy; (7) women believed that men and women were equally prepared physically and equally willing to deploy; (8) since these units have only recently opened to women, GAO also asked about the impact women have on the readiness on their unit; and (9) although men tended to view the impact of women on unit readiness less positively than women, more than half the men indicated that women affect readiness either no differently from men or in a positive way.