I was quite offended at what I heard a Senior Leadership Conference this weekend. I was an attendee and a low man on the totem pole so to speak and of course, it was a military conference. But there were a lot of high ranking folks there and I was amazed to hear something as a question and answer session was going on in an early morning session. I am not sure how I felt about the response afterwards - I think that was more offensive than the comment itself.
So there we were in the conference and someone asked a legitimate question about timing and deployments. When, someone blurted out - "well, that's great - all the people slated to deploy will all of a sudden end of pregnant." I was shocked- most women were- some men were. But others laughed and jeered and agreed. It was shocking. What was more shocking was that that type of comment was tolerated by the two Generals in the room. The one General seemed to have a lot to say about everything else but never once corrected this comment or addressed it. It left a lot of people in the room ... well, it left them without closure and quite offended. I was one of those individuals considering I have had a baby and plan on having more. I was convinced now more than ever that sexism in the AF is not just alive and well but it is condoned and even tolerated at upper echelon. Like I said, not addressing the comment left an even more foul taste in my mouth than the comment itself. Anyway, we .... soldier on .... even the working, pregnant moms!
