Women at Sea

April 2020 Women at Sea By Lieutenant j.g. Julianne E. Dahlman AROUND THE FLEET

In October 2018 while on patrol with the RONALD REAGAN CARRIER STRIKE GROUP (RRNSG), I was sitting on the Mess Decks filling out a meal evaluation onboard USS CHANCELLORSVILLE (CG 62) and overheard a conversation at the table about female interactions in the female berthing that troubled me. Female Sailors account for only 18% of the crew due to Ticonderoga class cruiser’s berthing restrictions, and these Sailors were facing multiple interpersonal challenges. Word quickly spread and soon the troubled environment in female berthing had reached senior leadership.

With an all male Chiefs’ Mess and only four female Junior Officers, CHANCELLORSVILLE was severely lacking experienced female leadership to address the issues discovered amongst the females. My Triad reached out to our ISIC, CTF 70, and requested that a senior female enlisted Sailor spend a few nights underway with us. Females, both Enlisted and Officer, were brought together to discuss and correct the challenges in female berthing. We held our “Women’s Meeting” once a month but still noticed the damage that had transpired over the previous months was still impacting many junior female Sailors.

After we gained a female Senior Chief Petty Officer, a female Limited Duty Officer, and four additional female Junior Officers, life underway started to change. In March 2019 we held another “Women’s Meeting” based on USS RONALD REAGAN’s (CVN 76) Nancy Talks after receiving guidance from their Command Chaplain. We discussed the importance of women sticking together, supporting each other and growing together. We relaxed our strict military customs to create an open forum where all-female Sailors are treated as equal without fear of reprisal and renamed our meeting “Women at Sea.”

Women at Sea allowed the khakis to provide mentorship regarding the specific challenges of being a woman at sea in a historically male-dominated work environment. We held pre-deployment meetings, biweekly movie nights, crotchet nights, and craft nights. Some events we kept open to the entire crew, but mostly we would take a break from our demanding underway schedule to discuss the specific issues related to females that we faced daily. We started recognizing each other’s accomplishments on a special bulletin board on the ship and challenged each other to be better. Soon, the junior female Sailors started to realize that women together could achieve much more than women apart.

Reflecting on my time onboard, I could not be prouder of the work the CHANCELLORSVILLE women have accomplished while spending the past 15 months underway. From barely even speaking to one another to be each other’s personal cheerleaders, the women of CHANCELLORSVILLE have kicked butt, culminating with our last sea and anchor detail controlling stations manned by all women. The “Women at Sea” stood Tactical Action Officer, Officer of the Deck, Junior Officer of the Deck, Conning Officer, Engineering Officer of the Watch, Combat Information Center Officer of the Watch, Antiterrorism Tactical Watch Officer, Helm Safety Officer, Aft Steering Officer, Tactical Communicator, Boatswainmate of the Watch, Master Helmsman, and lookout for our return to homeport before a Dry-docking Selected Restricted Availability (DSRA).

Even with CHANCELLORSVILLE’s time at sea coming to a close, we will continue our Women at Sea meetings on land with brunch, bowling, community service to give back, skate night, and paint night already scheduled. I encourage every young Junior Officer or Department Head to start Women at Sea programs at your own command, even if it as simple as a few Sailors getting coffee before quarters once a month and remember we are here to “Honor the past and Secure the future”. Let’s pay it forward.