Panel Backs Gender Integration in Military

Efforts by conservatives to separate men and women during basic military training were dealt a major--and perhaps lasting--setback Wednesday as a panel convened by Congress declared that newly inducted troops would be far better off in close quarters.

Emboldened by a series of sexual scandals in training camps, congressional conservatives pushed hard in the last two years for greater segregation and last fall set up a study panel that they hoped would further advance their case. Lawmakers in both houses have been awaiting its conclusions before acting on proposals for greater separation of the sexes when recruits are in training.

Contrary to expectations, however, the panel voted, 6 to 2, with two members abstaining, in favor of recent moves toward integration. In its report, the Commission on Military Training and Gender Issues said that each service should “be allowed to continue to conduct basic training in accordance with its current policies. This includes the manner in which basic trainees are housed and organized into units.”

The conclusions were in accord with the views of the leadership of the Army, Navy and Air Force, who believe that it would be disruptive and counterproductive to reverse integration policies that have continually gained momentum since the early 1980s. Senior military leaders pointed out, among other things, that, with enlistments flagging, the services badly need the women who now make up about 14% of the military.

But the recommendations run counter to those of another study panel, headed by former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker (R-Kan.), which last year urged that men and women be separated in basic-training units to allow them to more quickly adapt to military life.

Gender integration “is resulting in less discipline, less unit cohesion and more distractions from the training program,” that panel said in a report approved 11 to 0.

The members of the new panel were chosen by Republican committee chairmen and by ranking Democratic members of the committees dealing with the military. After an ideologically charged debate, only two members cast votes against the status quo: Thomas Moore, a former congressional aide who is now a military affairs analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, and retired Marine Lt. Gen. William Keys.

Abstaining were Commission Chairwoman Anita Blair, an attorney and board member of the Virginia Military Institute, and military sociologist Charles Moskos.

Voting for the report were Frederick Pang, a former Pentagon personnel official; Barbara Pope, a former Navy official; sociologist Mady Wechsler Segal; Nancy Cantor, the University of Michigan provost; retired Sgt. Major Robert Dare; and retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. George Christmas.

Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-Md.), a leader of the push for more separation, said in a statement that it appeared to him “many of these members did not enter this process with an open mind.”

A spokesman for Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), who advocates further gender integration, said the group’s report reflects that in the services “there’s strong support for gender integration training.”

Only the Marines currently segregate men and women in boot camp.

The Army, Air Force and Navy train men and women together in their first weeks in the military. Their sleeping quarters are separate, although sometimes they can be in different wings of the same building or ship.