Women in Senior Leadership in the U.S. Air Force

<p>In the Air Force today females clearly have many more opportunities available to them than they had decades ago. Yet while there has been tremendous improvement over the years males still greatly outnumber females in Air Force senior leadership positions specifically in the ranks of colonel and general. Since there are overwhelmingly more males in the Air Force one would naturally expect to find fewer women in these senior officer ranks. One might also expect to see at least proportionately the same number of females holding senior officer ranks as the number of females who make up all officer ranks-yet the statistical data show otherwise.<br>The purpose of this research was to uncover some of the real reasons for so few females in the senior officer ranks and to determine if their foundations lie in inequities towards females or whether these reasons were primarily based on females' interests and personal choices. This research effort found that the primary reasons for low numbers of female senior officers are indeed not based in inequities but on females' own preferences. More specifically these reasons are that fewer women enter the Air Force in the first place creating a smaller pool of female officers; not enough females have chosen operational career paths as pilots; and many potentially high-quality female officers choose to separate largely because of family issues.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>