Four US Navy officers have made history this week and breaking new ground in a traditionally white and male-dominated field.<\/p>\n
For the first time in US Navy history, four women of color are now commanding war ships at the same time, NBC News has reported.<\/p>\n
The four officers, Kimberly Jones, LaDonna Simpson, Kristel OCaas, and Kathryn Wijnaldum, recently said that there have been dramatic changes for women serving in the Navy over the years.<\/p>\n
The Navy looks different in the fact that as an ensign, I looked around and at that time, there were not many senior female officers that I could necessarily go to for gender-specific questions, Jones, who joined the Navy more than two decades ago, remarked in an interview clip obtained by People magazine.<\/p>\n
I may not have felt comfortable asking my male boss, Jones also said. Now, to their credit, they were phenomenal leaders. However, when it came time [for] some of those more intimate conversations on how to plan your career with a family, as a mom, that did not exist.<\/p>\n
She added: And I was overseas, so the population was slightly smaller. And now walking this waterfront, there are leaders, there are role models, at every rank...That is something that I hope ensigns, young sailors, gravitate towards and take advantage of.<\/p>\n
These four women are all based at Norfolk Naval Station, in Virginia. They are all Nuclear Surface Warfare Officers a qualification which is extremely competitive to obtain, according to the US Navy.<\/p>\n
All four women have spent a considerable amount of their time serving aboard nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and in nuclear-related shore duty billets, the Navy noted.<\/p>\n
Simpson said that while she was never discouraged from going after her career goals, she did not have many female role models.<\/p>\n
The Navy has been very supportive of my journey and my professional training. There werent any voices in the Navy that said that I could not achieve this goal, Simpson said. The only limitation was the fact that women as a whole hadnt been on board combatant vessels until, I believe, it was 1994.<\/p>\n
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US Navy: for first time in history four women of color command war ships - The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Four US Navy officers have made history this week and breaking new ground in a traditionally white and male-dominated field. For the first time in US Navy history, four women of color are now commanding war ships at the same time, NBC News has reported Continue reading