My next blog will be about how the times have changed in the military in regard to how well and how effectively our military folks are handling their job as compared to how it was in the past. I read in the article “Its all about the Rank” that our military members of all categories to include gender and race have a statistically better happiness for their job than what others in the civilian world do of the same race or gender. The difference in the military is that it is such a well structured and well organized set of rules and procedures that are to be followed that we understand that there once were prejudices and now we have tried so hard to push away from those terrible habits and given everybody equal chances and priveleges in the military to get rid of those stereotypes.
The article focuses on a prior Navy Officer named Lory Manning. What the article said was that Lory looked for a way to hold high responsibilties and be treated with the same and proper respect as her male counterparts. The military was the answer for her. It allowed her to have added responsibilities put on her like managing a 3 million dollar budget and participate in internations negotiations. Along with all the sights she was able to see, within her over 20 year of military experience she was able to get a good job after retiring active and settled down as the director of the Women in the Military Project at the Women’s Research and Education Institute. With her job she has found that women in the military are much more satisfied than civilian women because of the equallity that is across the board with all members of the military. Even for african american women, it is a complete 180 for them says Manning.
This is no where in comparison to what it was back in 1800’s when women were just starting to be allowed to work in the factories, but yet had lower wages than their male counterparts. The balance of responsibilities and trust was so uneven.
In days now, the members in the military that are white males are not enjoying the kind of priveleges that their white male civilian counterparts are enjoying so in essence, minorities are not such a minority in the United States Military which is a tremendous leap from where we were to today. In the 1800’s it was hard to get the blacks and whites to fight side by side until about the Civil war when they fought together. Irish and Blacks, side by side fighting to retain the Union and end slavery. It could be no greater feeling in the world than to fully take in the facts that happened right before our eyes within the last 20 years to make it a level playing field among all members of the military, whether they be black, white, hispanic, chinese, or any other nationality for that instance. It is sad, but true, those who are feeling oppressed in the civilian world may want to consider joining the military to gain that level playing field.
Link:
http://www.newsweek.com/2008/06/11/it-s-all-about-the-rank.html