Pregnant Enlisted Women in Navy Work Centers

Abstract

Public eporting burden for this collection of information is esimated to average I hour per respomne including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data source. gatring and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send cormnents regarding this burden estinate or any other aspect of this collection of inormstion, including suggetions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services Directorate for Information Operatiom and Reports. 1215 Jeffcmon Davis Highway. Suite 1204. Arington, VA 22202-4302, and to the Office of Managernent and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (0704-0188). Washington, DC 20503. AGENCY USE ONLY (Leave blank)2. REPORT DATE 3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED Approved for public release; listribution is unlimited. March 1991 ABSTRACT (Maximum 200 words)This report documents an effort to determine the amount of lost time due to pregnancy and to assess perceptions of supervisors and their pregnant subordinates regarding the effect of pregnancy on the workplace. Data were collected from pregnant enlisted women receiving medical care at San Diego and Tidewater area Navy prenatal clinics using a structured interview. A special purpose survey was sent to the current and former supervisors of the interviewed women. Key findings included:1. Lost time due solely to pregnancy amounted to 1 day per month per pregnant woman in the San Diego and Tidewaters areas.2. The impact of pregnancy on the work center and on the command was seen as greater on ships than at shore commands.3. Until the third trimester, most women continued to work normal shifts and hours in their rating during their pregnancy.4. Most co-workers and supervisors tended to respond positively to the news of pregnancy. 2-102 FOREWORDThis effort represents the second phase of a 3-year project to investigate the impact of pregnancy and single parents on mission accomplishment in the Navy. The purpose of this phase was to detennine the total amount of lost time due solely to pregnancy and to gather perceptions of supervisors and their pregnant subordinates regarding the effect of pregnancy on: the work place, co-worker morale, and readiness. Findings and recommendations are for the use of the Chief of Naval Operations (OP-13, OP-15) and the Surgeon General of the Navy (MED-25).The overall effort is being conducted within the advanced development Program Element 0603707N, Work Unit R1770, under the mission sponsorship of the Chief of Naval Operations (OP-O 1 B2). The results are expected to benefit the Navy by providing the information needed to develop policies to effectively manage pregnancy and single parenthood.The authors wish to thank the women who consented to be interviewed and the supervisors who promptly responded to the survey. In addition, special thanks go to LCDR Debra Coleman, DPI Susan Newhouse, PNl Kathy Powless, Amy Culbertson, Vicki Ostern, and Susan Turk for conducting the interviews, and to Marissa Lobato Meda, Lorama Malone, Nancy Roelle, and S...

“Always on parade”: Pregnancy experience of active-duty air force members.

“…Specifically, pregnant ADSMs faced both overt and covert messages about being less disciplined, lazy, weak, and deceitful. These experiences are congruent with rhetoric seen in newspaper headlines and research occurring about women in the military during the Gulf War (Thomas et al, 1991). It appears that negative attitudes toward pregnancy in the military have remained stable over the past 30 years.…”

“…In 1978, a study on women in the Army found pregnancy led enlisted women ADSMs to miss twice as much work as men, which negatively affected unit morale (Army Administrators, 1978). Another study found Navy commanders made references to women soldiers “deliberately becoming pregnant to avoid work or service altogether” (Thomas et al, 1991, p. 14). For example, newspaper headlines during the Persian Gulf War read “Pregnancy Kept GI Jill Out of War; A Camouflage Baby Boom?…”

Family formation among women in the U.S. military: Evidence from the nLSY

“…Dietrich (1988) profiled a female soldier with orders to report to a remote Indian Ocean Naval base who, as a result, was “desperately trying to get pregnant” (p. A3). According to a presidential commission ( The presidential commission , 1992), pregnancy accounted for 47% of all female nondeployments during the Gulf War; a study of Naval pregnancy included commanders’ anecdotal references to soldiers deliberately becoming pregnant to avoid work or service altogether (Thomas, Thomas, & McClintock, 1991). This said, in the early 1980s (the period of our analysis), onerous and dangerous overseas postings were fewer than they have subsequently become.…”

“…They've locked us down, so what else is there to do?” (Kennedy, 1996, p. 16). In 1990, 13% of Naval women at sea were transferred because of pregnancy; fewer than half were married, compared with three fourths of pregnant Naval women on land duty (Thomas et al, 1991; Thomas & Thomas, 1992). Thus, one variant of the argument relating exposure to fertility is that the close proximity of unmarried women to same‐age men creates the prospect for sexual activity, leading to unplanned pregnancies (Hoiberg & White, 1992).…”