MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- Before she was secretary of the Air Force, Deborah Lee James was a young college student working hard to achieve her dream of becoming a diplomat. After earning her master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University in New York, she moved to Washington, D.C., and applied to the Foreign Service. She was confident her dream would soon be fulfilled, but the acceptance letter never came.
“I was devastated, I saw my whole life go by,” she said. “I had invested my whole life into this dream and then it just went belly up.”
After days of being distraught over what she thought was a failure on her part, she said she picked herself up and began searching for a “Plan B.” After applying to numerous agencies, she finally secured a job with the Department of the Army. She wanted to work for the government, and she did wanted to do policy work, but this was far from her heart’s desire, but it was a job. However, within two months, she said that a remarkable thing happened, she began to find great purpose in the work she was doing and a sense of comradery with her new co-workers.
“It has been a remarkable career … it’s been quite a journey to be able to stand before you as the secretary of the Air Force and the second woman to be the secretary of a military branch, and it all started with a failure,” she said.
Her story is what James used to introduce herself at the Women in Leadership Forum at Maxwell Air Force Base, May 3, 2016.
The Women in Leadership Forum was established in September 2015 and supports Secretary of Defense Ash Carter’s recent “Lean In” initiative, which is aimed at expanding the number of women and minorities in leadership positions. The forum promotes interaction and camaraderie among participants and provides an opportunity to be a part of a network of female leaders.
“After 13 years in the military, as a woman in my mid-career, I viscerally recognize the importance of speaking up and speaking out,” said Maj. Elisabeth White, Women in Leadership co-founder. “Aspiring women leaders need our support to step up and express themselves with confidence. We are not getting enough women into key leadership positions, which means we are holding back our full potential as an Air Force. The Women in Leadership Forum provides a structure to encourage diverse leadership and better leverage our strengths.”
James said the Air Force and the Department of Defense are a far cry from when she began in the 90s, but she is convinced we could go further when it comes to diversity.
According to James, the Air Force leads the DoD with the highest percentage of women in the military. There is pretty good diversity within the junior enlisted corps, but the percentage of women and minorities drops significantly in the higher ranks of both the enlisted and officer corps.
James said there are three categories in which women get overlooked in the work place: policy, process and people. This is where she and Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. Mark A. Welsh began to make changes within the Air Force to address the issue.
To help retain female Airmen, new policies were implemented to mitigate the life stressors that cause many females to separate from the military.
Maternity leave has been extended from six to 12 weeks, and an extension for paternal leave and leave for adopting parents are also being considered by the Department of Defense to increase flexibility for growing families.
The time women have after pregnancy until they are subject for a deployment has been extended from six to 12 months, and the same has been implemented for the physical fitness assessment.
The Career Intermission Program was also recently implemented. It’s designed to retain high-quality male and female Airmen by allowing them to transfer from active duty to Reserve status for one to three years to allow them the flexibility to meet personal and professional needs, such as starting a family or going to school.
These new policies have been established, in part, to keep female Airmen from feeling they need to separate because they need the extra flexibility, James explained. These new policies allow females more choices regarding their family lives and give women more professional-development opportunities.
She also pointed out that previously closed positions to women have been opened, but assures that the standards have not been lowered and will be the same for both men and women.
White said she hopes women learn from James’ ability to close the “self-confidence” gap and thought James’ candidness in discussing her own failure encouraged attendees to pursue opportunities that may seem to be out of reach.
“You might be wondering if one person can make a difference, and I say absolutely,” James said. “I will challenge you to do so once you return to your respective positions and organizations … it really does only take one person to make a difference, and that one person could be you.”