My analysis reveals seven universal themes: * Professional competency and doing a good job. One can only observe that it would be surprising and ironic if these factors and competencies did not reflect already well-defined Army expectations. Their answers to questions simply reflect what leadership factors and competencies they think enhanced their ability to be selected for senior leadership positions. Does this convergence of expectations for Army officers represent an objective, legitimate validation of the roles, norms, and values-or is it an unavoidable solidarity, perpetuating male-dominance within a social construction? Post-modern analysis has not yet varnished the perceptions and experiences that the women in this study have articulated, and this study cannot address the question of whether the military culture is hopelessly chauvinistic, or not. In that sense, my results differ not at all from what one would expect from an all-male GO study. This article's research data clearly point to factors and competencies the male-dominated Army had already enshrined as roles, norms, and values. Female progress in military leadership has yet to be documented beyond mere statistics.

Biographies and histories document pervasive male dominance in military roles. Except for history's handful of warrior queens, senior military leadership positions have always belonged to men. (1) Even in progressive societies, male dominance remains a fact of life, a legacy from a pre-reflective, pre-technological past. Including BG Hayes, only 42 women have been selected and promoted to general officer (GO) rank in the active duty Army.

Army nurse Anna May Hayes was the first Army woman promoted to brigadier general in June 1970. Research on the views and opinions of senior women leaders in the U.S. Progress to the four-star tier has been slow in coming, given the relative numbers of women officers, but the July 2008 Army promotion list to Brigadier General (which had five women selected for promotion) inspires hope that competent women in the Army can and are advancing to the highest levels in the male-dominated hierarchy. LTG Claudia Kennedy followed Mutter a year later as the Army's first woman three-star. Marine Corps, was nominated and approved as the first woman to attain three-star rank in 1996. Her achievement is a milestone that has taken 12 years to reach since LTG Carol Mutter, U.S. This promotion is historically groundbreaking because Dunwoody is the first woman in the U.S. Senate for promotion to the rank of general (four stars).

more ON 23 JULY 2008, Army Lieutenant General (LTG) Ann E. ON 23 JULY 2008, Army Lieutenant General (LTG) Ann E.

Trailblazers by Yvonne Doll