Feminism has won. How do we know? Our nation’s military industrial complex is now stocked with women leaders. Slay, queens? Congrats to all of these ladies who are literally killing it.
As Politico reports, “From the executive leadership of top weapons-makers, to the senior government officials designing and purchasing the nation’s military arsenal, the United States’ national defense hierarchy is, for the first time, largely run by women.”
Four top defense contractors are now being led by women—Kathy Warden of Northrop Grumman, Marillyn Hewson at Lockheed Martin, Phebe Novakovic at General Dynamics, and Leanne Caret of Boeing Defense, Space & Security. They join several women in top positions in the military and in national security posts, like Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson; Ellen Ward, the Pentagon’s “top weapon’s buyer”; and Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, who heads up the National Nuclear Security Administration.
This is, according to Politico, a “watershed” for women in a field that has typically been led by men. How nice.
What explains women’s ascendance in our nation’s military industrial complex? According to Wilson, who took the reins of the Air Force in May 2017, it makes complete sense for women to lead the military industrial complex, because of… women’s natural maternal instincts.
She explained this curious assertion to the House Armed Services Committee in March 2018: “If I ask everyone in this room to think about the most protective person you know in your life, someone who would do anything to keep you safe, half the people in this room would think about their moms,” Wilson said. “We are the protectors; that’s what the military does. We serve to protect the rest of you, and that’s a very natural place for a woman to be.”
Women also bring fresh ideas to long-standing problems that have befuddled men for decades while engineering global catastrophe and forever wars, according to Karen Panetta, from Tufts University’s School of Engineering:
Panetta, who says she is often asked about the benefits of women in leadership, tells the story of soldiers in the desert using pantyhose to keep sand out of sensitive equipment. “Do you think a guy thought of that?” she asked. “For the longest time, these male-dominated organizations missed half of the population’s perspective on an issue or on an approach.”
I’m sure women in, say, Afghanistan, are pleased that their sisters in the United States are now giving their perspective on how to best—lovingly, nurturingly—maintain American military dominance around the world.