Are Female Navy Commanders Fired For Behaviors That Male Commanders Practice All The Time?

You know what came to my mind as soon as I read the article's title?

My kids when they were younger, whenever one of them got in trouble for something. Immediately, their backlash was "Well (insert brother/sister name) was doing (fill in the blank)."

I say the SAME answer applies to these female Navy Commanders that applied to my children: "This is about YOUR behavior, not your brother's or sister's behavior. How I handle their behavior will be between me and them when the time comes and is none of your business, just as what's happening now between you and me is none of THEIR business."

The question is, with respect to the female Navy Commanders getting fired, "Were they in the wrong for what they did and are being fired for?"

If the answer to THAT is "yes", then I have little, if any, sympathy for them. We don't base the punishments on what OTHER people get, or get away with. That's not how the system works. Nowhere in the Punitive Articles of the UCMJ does it say "It is a defense against this Article if other people are getting away with it."


Now, as to the article's premise itself, let's look at the following paragraph:

"This firing made me wonder if anyone has studied Navy reliefs by gender. Do female skippers get fired for “poor leadership” more often than male skippers? I wonder because, in journalism, I know of three women— one at the Washington Post, two at the New York Times —who were fired for being hardasses. Yes, they were. But would males have been fired for the same behaviors? In my experiences, no."

This is an entirely subjective opinion put forth at the conclusion of this paragraph, even though it opens up with a question as to whether female skippers get fired more often than male skippers. The author (Tom Ricks) CLEARLY implied that HE DID NOT KNOW. And yet, he goes on to make an "authoritative statement" that he DOES know.

In other words, it's pure conjectural bullsh*t.

Any number of searches can pull up plenty of examples of Navy Commanders who were fired for "poor leadership", "lack of confidence", and numerous other causes...and the vast majority of them will be male.

So NO, Tom Ricks, I'm not seeing this. And it isn't because my eyes are closed.

If you're going to be a journalist, especially an investigative journalist, posing such questions, then have the common decency to actually RESEARCH your material and provide your readers with the FACTS that have been revealed from that research...and not your unsubstantiated suppositions.

So, because a single woman was relieved (with no reason given as usual) he decides to write an article wondering wether there is a gender discrimination problem in the service? His examples in the story are all male, BTW. Sounds like someone wanted a few clicks... My ex-wife is leadership on a Navy ship, she never had any problems and she was tougher and smarter than any sailor I ever met (other than he lapse in judgment marrying me, that is...)

So this is just a question where he could have spent more time on research and at least proposed and answer. I had a female CO on Gunston Hall, she was a great leader and ran a tight ship. Did not agree with all of her decision and felt she was gender bias in some cases but great all the same. Picture of my crew for effect, the Gator has duel meaning but I always like to think the did it for me (The Gator, short for Navigator) NGUN are the flags her international call sign.