Men and Women in Ships: Attitudes of Crews After One to Two Years of Integration

摘要

The decision to assign women to ships shattered naval tradition but was implemented to improve manning levels in the fleet. An investigation into the integration process began in June 1979 and included 8 of the first 10 ships to receive women. Pre- and postintegration surveys were administered to the crews and observational reports gathered. The purpose was to provide Navy management with an appraisal of how integration was proceeding. Factor scores were generated for the 3,276 men and 418 women responding to the postintegration survey. ANOVAs were performed to investigate the effect of the independent variables: deployment, fleet, ship, department, pay grade, workshop attendance, gender, age, education, martial status, tenure, and reenlistment intent. The results indicate that the assigned fleet, ship, and department exerted a strong effect on attitudes but deployment did not. Chief petty officers had a positive opinion of the impact of women on the ship and its crew; nonrated men were enthusiastic about mixed-gender crewing; petty officers felt women had led to a decline in discipline and leadership and preferred an all-male crew. The effects of age, education, martial status, and tenure upon the factor scores were weak, but reenlistment intent had a significant effect. Sexual harassment was predominantly verbal in nature and being handled by the women themselves.