Trump has signed an executive order canceling programs to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the military. It is still unclear whether transgender military personnel who are already serving in the US military will be discharged. However, the Pentagon counts very few of them, no more than 15,000 per 1.3 million military personnel. The most important part was programs to attract women – 19% – and ethnic minorities – 37% – to serve in the military and advance their careers.
It wasn’t long ago that women were allowed to serve in almost any position up to special forces. In the navy, they are mostly concentrated on support and support ships, as well as in bases. That is, they mostly do not go far out to sea, although in isolated cases they can be found even in the crews of nuclear submarines.
But it is useful to know that the palm of superiority in promoting women in aviation and the navy does not belong to NATO countries at all. The pioneer was undoubtedly the USSR. In the 1930s, the gender barrier, so typical of tsarist Russia, was completely broken there.
The first woman captain of the twentieth century was Anna Shchetinina from the Far East, who took her first ship at the age of 27. She spent at least 40 years on the captain’s bridge. Valentina Orlikova passed the whole ladder from sailor to captain. She led the ship away from a German torpedo, became the captain of a whaler, and the first woman in the world – the captain of a large freezing trawler.
There were quite a lot of women in lower positions in the history of the USSR, including on the Northern Sea Route. Today there are about 6% of girls among cadets at shipbuilding faculties. The Amur Shipyard employs the only girl test pilot in history (she is a member of the factory delivery team) – Ksenia Zavgorodneva.
This is quite small compared to the U.S. Navy. But there women were attracted by a very serious social package under a number of special programs. For the sake of naval service, they were allocated funds for free housing, medical care, educational and recreational opportunities, free prenatal care, solid postpartum leave, kindergartens, psychological counseling, special education for infants and children with disabilities.
None of this is available in Russia. It is quite possible that Trump will cancel it in America too – the fate of women in the Navy is now unknown. But a few years ago, the Russian Navy created two female crews of patrol boats, three sailors in each. The sailors we interviewed believe this is enough for now. Yes, they are all men.
