A report recently released by the Army shows women still face intense sexism in the special operations community.
Though at least 121 women have made it through Army Ranger School and a handful have become part of the storied Green Berets, sexism is still rampant in Special operations, says Crystal Ellington. She served as a helicopter mechanic with the 160th Aviation Regiment, a unit called the “Nightstalkers.” In 2019 she deployed alongside Army Rangers in Iraq.
“I would have superiors say things to me like, I miss the good old days when women couldn't serve and you know, you're only here because we had to check a box,” she said. “And so really hearing those types of things on a day to day basis made me wonder if I had made the right decision.”
Comments similar to the ones Ellington heard in Iraq were part of a recently released Army report, which pointed to several issues women face, including isolation in special operations. Ellington says she cut her Army career short when the her command mishandled her sexual assault case.
“The mishandling of my case was something that made it very hard to do my job and made it hard to come to work and feel like I wouldn’t be heard and understood with the emotional battles that I was having on a day to day basis,” said Ellington, who now lives in Florida.
Ellison says it was disappointing that the Army still hasn’t addressed how race can be as large a barrier as sexism for women. The report did call out so-called benevolent sexism.
“There's a difference between being welcoming and being inclusive,” she said. “So being welcoming is kind of showing that warmth and friendly nature. But right underneath the surface, it's still those attitudes that women aren’t equal. Women need to be coddled. Women need special treatment.”
The internal Army report surveyed 5,000 men and women in Army special operations, including civilians. One warrant officer told the researchers that women should never be on the elite special operations teams saying - “we have enough problems. We don’t need females to make more.” A senior sergeant said he decided to retire - “So I don’t have to lead a team containing a female.” Another senior non-commissioned officer accused women of looking for boyfriends and husbands, rather than being seriously interested in being members of the team.
“I do believe that the vast majority of the negative comments unfortunately did come from senior noncommissioned officers. And so it does seem to indicate that it is generational,” said Army Special Operations Command Sergeant Major JoAnn Naumann helped unveil the report.
Kris Fuhr is a 1985 West Point graduate, who helped open up Army Ranger School to women after all combat positions were open to women in 2015.
“But the problem is those senior NCOs have a tremendous amount of influence on the young soldiers as they enter the force.”
For the last 8 years Fuhr has run a mentorship program for women attending US Army Ranger School.
“It's important for senior NCOs to tell junior soldiers, hey, you don't hunt among your team. You know, these women are not targets. These women are your teammates,” she said.
The study results were originally compiled in 2021 but Fuhr says attitudes are virtually unchanged. Nearly half of men surveyed felt the standards had been lowered to allow women. Though some of the worst public comments she says she’s encountered come from special forces vets, often called gray beards, who can influence current leaders.
“When the first women graduated from Ranger School, General Scott Miller invited anyone who thought that the standards had been changed,” Fuhr said. “He said, the door's open, come back and go through the course, with women. We’ll gladly run you through Ranger school again. And then you can tell us if you think we changed the standards. There were no takers.”
The Army looked at issues such as childcare. It also spent a great deal of time looking at various equipment issues, including packs that did not fit properly. The Army is participating in the Naval Health Research Center study into equipment issues for women throughout the services.
“They always get very focused on women and their bodies. What they really need to focus on, and this report addresses it is bias and issues within the culture,” Fuhr said. “If you don't have a culture that is receptive and understands the value of all teammates for, you know, newsletters and programs that are not going to fix it.”
Fuhr said she believes the Army is actually ahead of other elements of the special operations. Though less than 10 women have become members of the elite Green Berets, so far no women have become Navy SEALs. In 2021, a woman did graduate from the demanding 37 week training course to become a Naval Special Combatant Craft crewman - a separate special operations unit that often works with the more famous SEALs.
Overally, women make up roughly 9 percent of special operations, though women are roughly 20 percent of the armed forces, according to a report by the General Accounting Office released in December. The report showed women face barriers throughout the special operations community.
The report admonishes the Special Operations Command for not identifying and addressing the barriers faced by women, as well as the Pentagon for not creating a plan of action to address the problems.
