Equal Opportunity Is a Good Thing

Equal Opportunity is a Good Thing In the widest sense, gender individuality refers to each person’s own sense of being male or female. Although there are cultural, psychological and social characteristics associated with a person’s gender identity, I have seen how both men and women – from different cultures - took part in the shaping of our nation’s naval forces, the society I belong. Even though we have isolated incidents of sexual harassment and racial discrimination, it is very clear that the Navy have assimilated into a force that garners the best people that the nation has to offer. Gender roles are changing in American society as well as the United States Navy as women find themselves in many roles that a few decades ago would have been the turf of the other sex. For example, my first duty station was a Guided Missile Fast Frigate with a crew of 120 men; a decade later; the first female Commanding Officer took the helm of that warship. Last year, women were allowed to serve in submarines. I consider the Navy as one of the biggest corporations in world and we are so diverse that we have Sailors serving our nation that came from different race, color, religion or culture. The changes that I experience is not the same as Salam’s view of, “the world has been witnessing a quiet but monumental shift of power from men to women” because of the men’s behavior that “got the world into the current economic catastrophe; it will be a collective crisis for millions and millions of working men around the globe” (Colombo 629-630). The main reason for these shifts of power is to embrace the changes without equivocation or mental reservation because of the Navy’s ethos that we are all professionals exemplifying the highest standards of service to our nation, at home and abroad, at sea or ashore. I have felt like an outsider at some point because of my color, gender and where I came from, especially during my two years in the Navy as a Filipino contract worker. Even

Cited: Colombo, Gary, Cullen, Robert, and Lisle, Bonnie. Rereading America: Cultural Context for Critical Thinking and Writing. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010. Print