Recruiting Female Sailors
Navy Recruiting Command hosted members of the Brazilian navy Friday to discuss the challenges and success stories of recruiting female sailors into shipboard operational activities.
Navy Recruiting Command hosts Brazilian navy
Navy Recruiting Command hosted members of the Brazilian navy Friday to discuss the challenges and success stories of recruiting female sailors.
Brazilian navy Director of Navy Education Vice Adm. Leonardo Puntel, met with Rear Adm. Earl Gay, commander, Navy recruiting command, and key members of Gay’s staff during one stop on Puntel’s week-long trip visiting various U.S. Navy commands with a focus on how Brazil can further integrate females into its navy.
While the Brazilian navy has employed females in shore-based duties, they are now beginning to work towards fully integrating women into shipboard operational activities.
Puntel was briefed on U.S. Navy marketing campaigns and training geared specifically with the goal of better recruiting high-quality female sailors.
Females comprise about 16 percent of the U.S. Navy’s population. Up to 25 percent of the annual recruiting goals, however, are for women, so this increase in female recruiting will lead to an increased female population within the ranks over the coming years.
Propensity for women to join the U.S. Navy has decreased in the last four years. Some of the reasons cited include wanting a family or going to college. Females also identified concerns about the Navy being a male-dominated organization.
“The challenge is to show the women that there is a place for them in the Navy,” Cdr. Brent Phillips, director of marketing and advertising, NRC, told Pantel.
During the brief, NRC staff members discussed how nearly all job fields in the U.S. Navy are now open to females providing all the opportunities for a successful career that males have.
The staff also addressed the concerns about having a family discussing topics such as dual military co-location, family care plans, and current tests with career sabbaticals.
“We not only have successful careers, but we also have children,” said Cmdr. Carol Kushmier, director of training and quality assurance, NRC.
Kushmier spoke to the need for recruiters to not just recruit women but the entire family as research indicates that females are influenced by their families on the decision to join more so than males.
Members also discussed that creating propensity to join starts well before females enter the primary target market ages of 17-24.
“You have to go out and reach them when they are 8 years old, so they have something to dream about,” said Gay.
“You need the pioneers,” said Capt. Patrick Kennedy, Defense Attaché Office at the U.S. Embassy in Brazil, told Puntel. “You need women who are already leading and hard-charging.”
Navy Recruiting Command consists of a command headquarters, two Navy Recruiting Regions and 26 Navy Recruiting Districts which serve hundreds of recruiting stations across the country.
With 70 percent of the world covered in ocean, 80 percent of the world’s population living near coasts and 90 percent of the world’s commerce traveling by water, America’s Navy continues to be forward deployed as a global force for good. Navy Recruiting Command’s mission is to recruit the best men and women for America’s Navy to accomplish today’s missions and meet tomorrow’s challenges.
Source: DVIDS.
