Women in the Marines Play Down Issue of Harassment

The official military shorthand for these leathernecks is “WMs”--women Marines. There is no official shorthand for males: They are Marines, pure and simple.

The Marine Corps, the elite branch of the U.S. Armed Forces that entices recruits with the slogan, “We’re looking for a few good men,” currently has 10,000 women among its 200,000 members. Given the corps’ ingrained macho image, a WM is a curiosity, a contradiction in terms and, ultimately, a Marine who must work that much harder to make the grade.

Women Marines recently interviewed at Camp Pendleton in the presence of public information officers said they wanted more than anything to fit in--to do their job, pull their weight and enjoy being part of what one woman called “the best fighting force there is.”

That has always been a tall order for WMs because the United States, unlike Israel and Denmark, excludes its military women from all combat positions. Even as Iranian women, shrouded in traditional black mufti, are training with weapons to defend their country, American women Marines in khaki trousers are still relegated to the sidelines as support staff.

‘Why Shouldn’t You Go?’

“It’s a touchy subject,” said Sgt. Kathleen Ereth. “It comes up a lot.”

Added Cpl. Judy Powell, “I’ve had a few male Marines say to me, ‘Well, you’re a Marine, why shouldn’t you go on the front line like everybody else?’ ”

These days, WMs are feeling even more out of sync with the corps image after a highly publicized report that military women stationed in Pacific outposts have been prey to widespread sexual harassment and discrimination.

Released by the Department of Defense in August, the report cited instances of military women in Pacific posts denied promotions for which they had qualified, propositioned by male and female superiors, badgered off base by male peers and, in one of the worst cases, offered “for sale” to local Koreans by a ship’s captain (who has been relieved of command pending investigation).

In both the Navy and the Marine Corps, said the report, “the encouragement of a ‘macho’ male image contributes to behavior that is at best inappropriate and at worst morally repugnant.”

‘Blown Out of Proportion’

The report emphasized that such behavior occurs far less frequently in domestic military posts, a finding confirmed by the women at Camp Pendleton. “There are a few isolated incidents,” Powell said, “but it was all blown out of proportion.”

The WMs here believe the ensuing negative publicity about treatment of female soldiers is bad for the corps and especially bad for its female troops.

“I didn’t appreciate it,” said Ereth, who was in Okinawa when members of the Pentagon Advisory Committee on Women in the Service were compiling the report. “I’m sure there have been cases everywhere, but it’s like walking along a street in the civilian world: You tell him to back off.”

Cpl. Theresa Gilliam said the report “did bother me to a certain extent. It’s really not happening and it put a bad focus on the corps. We’re supposed to be the best fighting force there is and here comes this.”

It is not surprising that Gilliam has not been harassed by other soldiers. She is an MP (military police), a job that opened to women Marines in the late 1960s. Anybody who thinks that a woman cannot be as tough as a man should try driving at breakneck speed past Gilliam while she is on patrol.

“I apprehend men a lot,” she said dispassionately. “You just have to put them in their place. You have authority over them and you have to use that authority. If they don’t like it, you can use physical force or intimidate them. One of the two always works.”

Like most Marines of either sex, Gilliam decided to enter the corps because it promised her hands-on experience in her chosen field (criminal justice) without sitting around in classrooms first.

“I just didn’t have the motivation to finish college because it was boring and I wasn’t learning anything,” she said. “I like practical experience myself. I still read a lot about criminal justice but I prefer to go out and do the job.”

Like any civilian cop, Gilliam sees a lot of drunkenness and domestic violence, often hand-in-hand. “Sometimes being a woman helps,” she said.

In one case, she and three other MPs had to coax a drunken Marine into handing over the infant he was carrying before they could handcuff him and lead him away.

“The first thing you do is separate the husband and wife, put them in two different rooms and get them away from each other. If you do that, you’ll have everything under control.”

Respond in Kind

Then what, Gilliam was asked. How do you handle a big, drunken Marine?

“Very carefully,” she said with a slight smile. “If he wants to get belligerent and combative, you get belligerent and combative. I see it as an advantage if they’re drunk and you’re smaller than they are, because they’re not going to have the quickness they have when they’re sober.”

Gilliam and the other WMs spend a lot of their free time staying in shape, running and playing team sports. All Marines are required to run three times a week--men at least three miles each outing and women 1 1/2 miles--and each must pass a physical fitness test every six months.

Social Life Minimal

Otherwise, social life for women Marines is pretty minimal, with 12-hour workdays and course work. The recent Defense Department report found that military women overseas suffer from isolation and a dearth of social outlets. WMs stateside seem to have a fair number of opportunities to socialize but little time.

“I lead a boring life,” Ereth, an air traffic controller, said with a grin. “Right now, I’m studying a lot and I go out with friends. This is the first station where I’ve had other WMs as friends.”

The Marine Corps is no place for a party girl, but WMs do not enlist to have fun. “I heard the Marine Corps was the best, the hardest, and I wanted a bigger challenge,” said Lt. Marcela Velasco.

Standards Higher for Women

Like other female Marine officers, Velasco had to meet higher standards than her male counterparts. The corps simply doesn’t need that many women in command--only 650 of more than 20,000 Marine officers are WMs--so female applicants for Officer Candidate School must have at least a 3.5 grade point average in college. Male candidates can get by with a 2.5 average.

Now, as the supervisor of 50 Marines in the headquarters maintenance division, the lieutenant says she has learned “the best way to get somebody to do something is still ‘please.’ Just because you’re in the military doesn’t mean you have to order them around. You treat them as individuals.

“In any situation, I ask my Marines what they suggest. Then, when I have everybody’s ideas, the bottom line is that it’s my decision.”

It’s a Juggling Act

As Velasco sees it, being a woman in the macho Marine Corps can be a bit of a juggling act. “Just because you’re a WM doesn’t mean you can’t be feminine--or that you can’t be tough. You have to keep that balance, and sometimes it’s not easy.”

In Gilliam’s view, the corps blurs sex lines. “Macho is not just for men,” she said. “Every woman has a little bit of masculinity about her and it’s going to come out here.”

Powell, a firefighter who works on the base air crash crew, said, “I don’t consider myself macho. We do have a macho image but it’s because we push ourselves. The corps sets higher standards for its people and expects more out of us.”

Powell was a firefighter before she enlisted; when she gets out, she will have a degree in fire science and will likely go back to a civilian fire department at a higher position than the one she left.

Like other WMs, Powell fraternizes with military men. “My two best friends are male Marines,” she said. She also dates Marines. “But I make it a policy never to go out with anyone I work around. If I start dating someone who is my supervisor or section leader, that would cause problems.

“And I’m friends with a few military wives. They look at me as just another crew member.”

What about dating civilians? Powell smiled. “Men on the outside tend to look at you and think, ‘Wow,’ ” she said. “Some just say, ‘Well, it was nice talking to you,’ and walk off. Others are impressed; they think being in the service is hard and being a Marine is harder.”

Powell is the only one of the four WMs interviewed who has reservations about combat duty. “I think some women could handle it but I don’t know about myself,” she said. “I don’t think I would like to be on the front lines.”

The others are ready.

“If I was asked to be a controller in a combat situation, I would go in a heartbeat,” Ereth said, “because that’s my job.

“Men and women are different in a sense. But as I tell men who bring up the subject (of combat duty), there are some men who I wouldn’t want in a foxhole with me--which is the thing I always hear about women.”

Ereth was an honor guard in boot camp and for the last four years has directed air traffic into military airfields. The Marines’ renowned air traffic control program is what brought her into the corps.

Classroom Can’t Do It

“You really can’t teach air traffic control in a classroom,” she said. “Each day brings you a new challenge and you have a limited amount of time to deal with it. People can ace school and get out in the field and not be able to handle the pressure.

“You can’t sit back on this job. If you have any fear, you just have to get over it.” Courage, she said, is not a masculine trait.

Ereth isn’t sure the Marine Corps could ever achieve complete integration of the sexes, which has been done successfully in the Danish and Israeli armed forces. “Integration would take serious adjustment,” she said. “It would have to start in boot camp, get males and females used to going on the field together.”

For now, she and her fellow WMs have their work cut out for them. “If we don’t do our job, we may be singled out. So I do the best job possible. If it means running three miles instead of 1 1/2 miles, I’ll do it.”

Ereth believes she is at ease with the peculiar status of being a woman Marine. “When the men say, ‘You guys are called WMs and we’re just Marines,’ I tell them, ‘OK, so you’re an MM. I didn’t come up with that distinction.’ ”