Women's Military Clothing - 'The cost of being a woman': Women in the military pay more to keep their uniforms up-to-date

Corrections and Clarifications: An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed Lt. Gen. Dana Atkins. The general is a person.

Women's Military Clothing

Women's Military Clothing

This story was published in partnership with The 19th, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom that reports on gender, politics and policy.

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A woman who has been in the military for 20 years may have paid more than $8,000 out of pocket for a uniform. However, according to the US Government Accountability Office report, a person with the same amount of service paid about $3,500. Similar differences were found in the Navy and Marine Corps.

In April, several weeks after the GAO report was released, Democratic Reps. Julia Brownlee of California and Jackie Spear of California and Rep. Alice Stefanik of New York, the No. 3 Republican in the House, failed to address the gender pay gap. biased calculation. Now Sens. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, a Democrat, and Joni Ernst of Iowa, a Republican, have introduced a similar bipartisan bill in the Senate.

In an exclusive on the 19th, Hassan said it's "absurd" that service members are forced to pay "thousands of dollars more" for the clothes they wear to serve the country. The military services—the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force—provide an annual clothing allowance to enlisted service members to replace uniform items. However, GAO found that some items were excluded and identified inconsistent requirements between the Services.

This disparity in uniform prices is particularly severe for women, who in some cases pay twice as much as their male counterparts for the same uniform item, Hasan said in a statement. "I look forward to working closely with Senator Ernst to advance this bill and ensure that we help reduce the gender disparity in our military."

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Ernst, a veteran with more than two decades of military experience, did not respond to requests for comment on the legislation.

Over the past decade, each of the military services has made changes to their uniforms. After reviewing these 18 changes, the GAO found that especially among officers, women were required to pay disproportionately more out-of-pocket costs. For example, half of the mandatory changes in the Navy affected only women. None of the changes affected only men.

Tina Von Sherman, director of the GAO, said she expected the recent uniform changes to increase time costs for officers, who are typically expected to pay out of pocket for uniforms. Officers typically receive a $400 cash allowance when they first report for active duty, but receive no additional compensation.

Women's Military Clothing

"It's always a little surprising when you realize that there continues to be a disparity, in this case between male and female service members, when it comes to something as basic as the uniform," Sherman said.

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According to the GAO report, newly recruited service members receive uniforms that cost between $1,600 and $2,400. Sherman said she was surprised to learn that more women's uniforms — such as pumps, handbags and swimsuits — were left off the list of items the Army will replace for all enlisted service members. In addition, women only receive a small one-time allowance to buy clothes. It's usually less than $200, Sherman added. Men also receive initial, disposable supplies of underwear, underpants and athletic socks, but these items are generally less expensive than bras, underwear and socks, according to the report.

The difference shows how the military's self-image has somehow changed in recent years. Last year, for example, the US Military Academy at West Point changed a policy that required women to pay for the required uniforms if they could not wear the unisex uniforms that were given to everyone for free.

Cara Dixon Wolk, a professor at Texas Christian University who studies gender and the military, said the senators' proposal represents an attempt to "frankly no longer see the male body as normal." It marks a formal reconsideration of the importance of diversity — both among men and women, but also among people of different body types more generally, Vok said.

If passed, the legislation — the Assuring Military Forces Treated Uniformly and Equivalently in the Services (FATIGUES) Act of 2021 — would require the Department of Defense to develop consistent standards when issuing uniform items. Come on, make any changes. Determine potential costs to determine uniform changes and identify retail costs for men and women in services.

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A spokeswoman for Hassan's office said the senator is optimistic about the legislation's momentum because of support from members of both parties in both houses of Congress and broad support from a dozen veterans' and advocacy organizations. The office is pushing for the bill to be included as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2022, which is currently being debated in the Senate.

Lt. Gen. Dana Atkins, a retired Air Force officer and president and chief executive of the Military Officers Association of America, said she appreciated lawmakers specifically advocating for women in the military.

"Establishing uniform pay equity between male and female service members is long overdue," Atkins said in a statement. "Uniform allowances have been based on male uniforms for years, resulting in female service members having to personally subsidize the cost of their uniforms."

Women's Military Clothing

This is not the first time Hasan, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, has worked with Ernst, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on military legislation. In April, the couple introduced a veteran suicide prevention measure that was approved this month.

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Courtney Burns, assistant professor of political science at Bucknell University, said the legislation, if passed, could signal a shift in recruiting among women who have been discouraged by the culture of the military. It also shows current and former service members that the government and military understand the inequities that affect women and other marginalized groups, Burns added.

Jennifer Schenk Sacco, a professor of political science and women's and gender studies at Quinnipiac University, said women pay more because women and their bodies are not considered "standard" for soldiers. There are men and men's bodies, he said.

According to Lori Brown, a sociology professor at Meredith College, in addition to the military, police and corrections officers wear clothing originally designed for men. Women start thinking.

Sacco also pointed to other workplaces, including fire stations and Congress, that did not have women's restrooms near the chamber floor until 1993 in the Senate and 2011 in the House. Sacco argued that steps to eliminate gender disparities in the military are "part of a continuum of measures taken to reduce barriers to diversity," including hair quality standards that vary between races.

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"These 'victories' are more than symbolic," Sacco said. "They are real, and while they do not eliminate all gender or racial disparities in the military or other workplaces, they are a long step in that direction."

Brown emphasized that the government should not only pay for the price difference, but that they should include women from the beginning: in the design process. Sign up for our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news. Register for our free US Evening. Email headers

American military women will still wear pants, but from now on they can actually fit. In a move that highlights the changing nature of traditional gender roles, the Pentagon is testing its first line of combat uniforms designed specifically for women's jobs.

Women's Military Clothing

Seven hundred suits are currently being tested at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. They have smaller arms than the male version and more breathing room around the chest and hips. Designers have also changed the knee pads, to compensate for the fact that women generally have shorter feet than their male counterparts.

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The most important feature in practical terms is said to be a newly designed branch. The stripped-down uniform no longer boasts the old zipper, but is designed in a way that allows female soldiers to urinate without having to undress.

About 14 percent of the U.S. armed forces are women, and 220,000 have served in Afghanistan and Iraq. The move to design uniforms that cater to their specific needs comes at a time when battlefield roles are being re-evaluated for the modern age.

In January, Congress recommended to President Obama that female recruits who can undergo training alongside their male counterparts also be allowed to serve alongside them in combat. In the past, their role in the theater of war has been limited to tasks such as driving trucks and piloting helicopters. For this to work, they need more suitable equipment. Currently, female soldiers are about 20 percent more likely to report muscular dystrophy than their male counterparts, a statistic largely attributed to the fact that they wear clothing and body armor that conforms to male body shapes.

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