While the Navy department is being strong-armed into removing ‘man’ from all job titles, the other military branches are still figuring out whether they will follow suite.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus distributed a memo at the start of the new year announcing his plans for integrating women into the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. This includes revising all job titles to be more gender inclusive by April 1.
The word ‘man’ is widely used as a default or generic term, and it’s tacked onto the end of job titles in several professions, ranging from first responders (fireman, policeman) to the military (airman, midshipman). All military branches include dozens of combat and noncombat roles, but almost every job title has the ‘man’ suffix. The Navy and Marine Corps definitely have their work cut out for them before their spring deadline.
Mabus’ controversial move hasn’t inspired the every other military branch to do the same. The U.S. Air Force has already shot down any suggestions that it will remove gendered language from its job titles.
“We will continually review all aspects of our program as we proceed with the full integration of women into all Air Force occupational specialties, however, a job title or rank nomenclature review is not currently underway nor being considered at this time,” the Air Force said in a statement to the Air Force Times.
As for the U.S. Army, it remains too early to say which direction the branch may go. The service has agreed to provide a gender integration plan to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, but it hasn’t addressed the option of gender-neutral names yet.