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Fight like a girl : the truth behind how female Marines are trained / Kate Germano ; with Kelly Kennedy.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: Amherst, New York : Prometheus Books, 2018Copyright date: ©2018Description: 304 pages ; 23 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781633884137
  • 1633884139
Other title:
  • Truth behind how female Marines are trained
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Tears and cupcakes -- The firing squad -- Not smart enough to be a sailor -- Data geek -- The rest of the story -- Esprit de cult -- Fourth dimension -- Iron ladies -- Great expectations -- Separate but not equal -- Corsets kill careers -- Moving targets -- Pizza boxes -- Preaching integration -- Shoot like a girl -- Train like a girl -- Mean girls -- When there's no one left to blame -- Fisticuffs -- While the cat is away -- Thumpin' third -- Good news travels fast -- Like a (bad) boss -- Climate change -- The rapist is always wrong -- Worst of the worst -- General relativity -- Kill the messenger -- Leaked like a sieve -- Command performance -- Equal opportunist -- Fifth dimension: a lifetime of devotion.
Summary: The Marine Corps continues to be the only service where men and women train separately in boot camp or basic training. This segregation negatively affects interaction with male marines later on, and, lower expectations of female recruits are actively maintained and encouraged. But Lieutenant Colonel Kate Germano arrived at the Fourth Recruit Training Battalion at Parris Island--which exclusively trains female recruits--convinced that if she expected more of the women just coming into Corps, she could raise historically low standards for female performance and make women better Marines. And, after one year, shooting qualifications of the women under her command equaled those of men, injuries had decreased, and unit morale had noticeably improved. Then the Marines fired her. This is the story of Germano's struggle to achieve equality of performance and opportunity for female Marines against an entrenched male-dominated status quo. It is also a universal tale of the effects of systemic gender bias. Germano charges that the men above her in the chain of command were too invested in perpetuating the subordinate role of women in the Corps to allow her to prove that the female Marine can be equal to her male counterpart. She notes that the Marine Corps' $35-million gender-integration study, which shows that all-male squads perform at a higher level than mixed male-female squads, flies in the face of the results she demonstrated with the all-female Fourth Battalion and raises questions about the Marine Corps' willingness to let women succeed. At a time when women are fighting sexism and systemic bias in many sectors of society, Germano's experience has wide-ranging implications and lessons--not just for the military but also for corporate America, the labor force, education, and government.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Biography Germano, K. G373 Available 33111009187895
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A Marine Corps combat veteran with twenty years of service describes her professional battle against gender bias in the Marines and the lessons it holds for other arenas.

Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Kate Germano arrived at Parris Island convinced that if she expected more of the female recruits just coming into Corps, she could raise historically low standards for female performance and make women better Marines. One year after she took command of the Fourth Recruit Training Battalion, shooting qualifications of the women under her command equaled those of men, injuries had decreased, and unit morale had noticeably improved.

Then the Marines fired her.

This is the story of Germano's struggle to achieve equality of performance and opportunity for female Marines against an entrenched male-dominated status quo. Germano charges that the men above her in the chain of command were too invested in perpetuating the subordinate role of women in the Corps to allow her to prove that the female Marine can be equal to her male counterpart. She notes that the Marine Corps continues to be the only service where men and women train separately in boot camp or basic training. Meanwhile, in the U.S. Army, women have already become Army Rangers and applied to be infantry officers.

Germano addresses the Marine Corps' $35-million gender-integration study, which shows that all-male squads perform at a higher level than mixed male-female squads. This study flies in the face of the results she demonstrated with the all-female Fourth Battalion and raises questions about the Marine Corps' willingness to let women succeed.

At a time when women are fighting sexism in many sectors of society, Germano's story has wide-ranging implications and lessons not just for the military but for corporate America, the labor force, education, and government.

Includes bibliographical references.

Tears and cupcakes -- The firing squad -- Not smart enough to be a sailor -- Data geek -- The rest of the story -- Esprit de cult -- Fourth dimension -- Iron ladies -- Great expectations -- Separate but not equal -- Corsets kill careers -- Moving targets -- Pizza boxes -- Preaching integration -- Shoot like a girl -- Train like a girl -- Mean girls -- When there's no one left to blame -- Fisticuffs -- While the cat is away -- Thumpin' third -- Good news travels fast -- Like a (bad) boss -- Climate change -- The rapist is always wrong -- Worst of the worst -- General relativity -- Kill the messenger -- Leaked like a sieve -- Command performance -- Equal opportunist -- Fifth dimension: a lifetime of devotion.

The Marine Corps continues to be the only service where men and women train separately in boot camp or basic training. This segregation negatively affects interaction with male marines later on, and, lower expectations of female recruits are actively maintained and encouraged. But Lieutenant Colonel Kate Germano arrived at the Fourth Recruit Training Battalion at Parris Island--which exclusively trains female recruits--convinced that if she expected more of the women just coming into Corps, she could raise historically low standards for female performance and make women better Marines. And, after one year, shooting qualifications of the women under her command equaled those of men, injuries had decreased, and unit morale had noticeably improved. Then the Marines fired her. This is the story of Germano's struggle to achieve equality of performance and opportunity for female Marines against an entrenched male-dominated status quo. It is also a universal tale of the effects of systemic gender bias. Germano charges that the men above her in the chain of command were too invested in perpetuating the subordinate role of women in the Corps to allow her to prove that the female Marine can be equal to her male counterpart. She notes that the Marine Corps' $35-million gender-integration study, which shows that all-male squads perform at a higher level than mixed male-female squads, flies in the face of the results she demonstrated with the all-female Fourth Battalion and raises questions about the Marine Corps' willingness to let women succeed. At a time when women are fighting sexism and systemic bias in many sectors of society, Germano's experience has wide-ranging implications and lessons--not just for the military but also for corporate America, the labor force, education, and government.

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