In recognition of the 101st International Women’s Day on March 8, Vice Admiral Ann E. Rondeau, president of the National Defense University and member ex-officio of USIP’s Board of Directors, discusses the challenges and opportunities women face today.
Vice Admiral Ann E. Rondeau, member ex-officio of USIP’s Board of Directors, is president of the National Defense University. The National Defense University is the premier center for Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) and is under the direction of the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Department of Defense.
She graduated with a degree in history in 1973 from Eisenhower College, where she was selected by the Board of Trustees as “Most Distinguished Graduate” and received the Groben Award for Leadership.
She has served in leadership, staff and command assignments in myriad mission areas: fleet operations (anti-submarine warfare, air operations, operations, intelligence, maritime transportation and sealift), strategy and policy, training and education, business enterprise and shore installations. She has served as a White House Fellow and as a Chief of Naval Operations Fellow. Vice Admiral Rondeau is Surface Warfare qualified, earning qualifications on both MSC Merchant Marine vessels and U.S. Navy combatants. She holds subspecialty qualifications in political-military affairs, operational intelligence, operations analysis, strategy and planning and military transportation and is a licensed private pilot.
In recognition of the 101st International Women’s Day on March 8, Vice Admiral Ann E. Rondeau discusses the challenges and opportunities women face today.
What message do you have today for U.S. military women around the world?
My message is for military women as it is for military men: how proud we are of what you have accomplished and the excellence of your service, how reliant the nation and our international partners are on your professional competence and continued drive toward mission success (in whatever mission set you are involved globally), how much promise you provide to the nation and globe in developing new solutions to old problems and new challenges, and how keenly interested we are in ensuring you are provided all the opportunities and tools to “win” in every way possible, most particularly in demonstrating and delivering on the brilliance of our military in all things, including humanitarian missions and efforts to support de-confliction and conflict resolution. The United States military is an extraordinary organization and body of people who work diligently toward accomplishing difficult and important things well and right. Military women are part of our core and our corps – essential to all we do every day with excellence, prowess, and professionalism. We should all be proud and confident in our contributions and our potential for making a difference, alongside each other, pulling as a team and leading, leading, leading.
What challenges and opportunities does today’s global situation provide for U.S. civilian and military women?
In the context of the United States, I seen endless challenges and opportunities for anyone in service – civilian or military, women or men. It is a fact, however, that women often have a more difficult time in various cultural milieus. We do have examples, however, of adaptation in ways that often yield unexpected outcomes. The female engagement teams that have been developed in Afghanistan are a good example of the specific role that only women can play in stability operations. In certain traditional cultures, only women will be able to reach out to women in the local population. Getting our message across to Afghan women in ways that do not offend Afghan culture has required the deployment of female engagement teams. This is in addition to the multiple tasks that women and men are doing in stability ops – a mission set that is insufficiently understood in many ways.
The point, of course, is that there is always need and the global environment will always have need for people who are willing to contribute their skills and talents toward the myriad of challenges across the globe. There is no lack of need.
Where are the key remaining obstacles for women today throughout the world, as you see it?
Let me offer what might be viewed as a different perspective on the question – more with a view toward provoking thoughtfulness and conversation about “obstacles” in the largest sense.
I would rather cast the question in terms of “opportunities” (and risks of missed opportunities) than “obstacles,” principally because I believe obstacles are a fact of life and overcoming them is as much a matter of attitude as of actual structures, rules, and impediments. There are always important rules that govern us that are useful, imperative, required, and constructive. Those rules and governance are often critical to order, clarity, coherence and sheer simplicity in complex, complicated , variable, confusing, and diverse environments and circumstances.
At the same time, there are also “absolutes” that need to be identified, understood and optimized. For instance: an absolute fact is that men and women differ in their physical composition. This can be seen as an obstacle if we choose to limit potential. This can also be seen as an opportunity for leveraging those fact-of-life differences toward mission – the “obstacle” thereby becomes a function of our thinking rather than a limiting factor toward how we build capacity toward success. I realize this is perhaps a different approach to the question, but I believe personal success in competitive environments and team success in collaborative environments requires optimistic thinking and optimizing leadership attitudes toward how to ensure everyone matters toward mission accomplishment. So, our “obstacles” largely lie in how we think and see ourselves.
With that specific point in mind, some key potential “obstacles” put into the form of opportunities and questions might include:
- Intellectual mindset: Do we read professional writings, to include relevant and entertaining fiction meaningful to the understanding of our environments and profession? Are we diligent students and focused readers and observers toward those things that make us smarter, more informed, more insightful about our profession? Do we write? Do we engage in the intellectual life of our profession? Do we involve ourselves in interesting professional conversations and critical discussions that increase our knowledge, improve our discernment, sharpen our judgment and deepen our insights, intuition and instincts?
- Operational mindset: Are we constant in our pursuit of developing our operational skills, mastering our operational art and continuously improving our operational effectiveness?
- Professional mindset: Do we see ourselves as “warriors” in both the specific and larger meaning of that word? If so, how do we understand our obligations toward operational effectiveness as well as good ethics, civility, our professional ethos, our understanding and our effect?
- Ethical mindset: Are we pristinely mindful of our ethical conduct? Do we examine ourselves mindfully toward understanding core and situational ethics? Are we rigorous in ethical understanding?
- Physical and personal mindset: Are we physically robust? Do we work on our health and fitness, our stamina and our habits? Are we disciplined about our disciplines? Do we take care of our personal lives, obligations and attentions, including family and friends? How do we take care of and attend to our emotional and psychological well-being so that we have capacity to contribute well to our colleagues, to teams, to mission and to purpose? What are our health and fitness habits and do we do we have good personal practices that ensure we are “ready” and able to lead with vigor, rigor and a healthy and sound mind and body?
- Spiritual mindset: Do we take time for spiritual restoral?
- Dispositional mindset: How do we lead? What do we understand about leadership? Do we study, examine and pursue best leadership practices that are effective in our particular culture? What are our own leadership traits, strengths and weaknesses and how do we capitalize our strengths and improve our weaknesses?
There are other questions that can be asked, but the point is simple: people – our competitors and enemies included – will put obstacles in front of us so that we fail. Key to “winning” is in seeing what is possible and understanding what is achievable. Delivering mission success and teams toward excellence is largely about understanding and then acting on what’s possible more than what is permissible.
Be optimistic. Act responsibly. Be confident. Lead. Obstacles will pale in the boldness of true excellence.