The leader who will head the Navy's unpopular gender-neutral review sees it as more than a chance to remove "man" from some job titles, but as a means to review and rename some titles to make them more relevant.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus ordered the review of job titles, which prompted thousands to bash the idea on Facebook as political correctness run amok.
The reaction to Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus' gender-neutral review of all the Navy's job titles has been overwhelming — sailors hate the idea — with most men and wormen responding feel it's just a waste of time.
Over a one hundred sailors voiced this and similar opinion in letters to the editor of Navy Times, thousands more chimed in on Facebook, usually with a theme that the Navy gone too politically correct.
But the where some see a waste of time, e Navy’s top enlisted sailor sees an opportunity and has and he’s volunteered to lead the Navy’s effort by getting the brass to agree to a complete review.
Have a suggestion for a new job title or an opinion about the naming review? Tell us at Navylet@navytimes.com
"What he's asked us to do is, when and where it's appropriate, let's take a look at where we can take 'man' or 'men' out of the nomenclature," said Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (AW/NAC) Mike Stevens in a Jan. 14 interview. "But I think we can also review all our ratings. … Maybe there's rating titles out there that just don't make sense anymore."
Stevens has read SECNAV's memo and discussed it with Chief of Naval Personnel the matter with both Vice Adm. Bill Moran and the Navy ’s chief of personnel as well as Stevens’ own boss, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson and told both, he wants to run with the ball, his review won't only check for gender-neutrality -- he's looking for relevance in job titles, too.
His price for taking the job was that leadership agree to a complete review -- not just removing "man" from titles. His idea goes much deeper.
"What he's asked us to do is when and where it's appropriate, let's take a look at where we can take 'man' or 'men' out of the nomenclature," he said. "But I think we can also review all our ratings…maybe there's rating titles out there that just don't make sense anymore."
Over time, he says, the scope of career fields naturally change and sometimes they change enough to where the title doesn’t accurately depict what the job is — or even offer a clue about it. doesn’t actually give a clue what the job actually is. Often
"I've already seen the chatter that's going about this and what I hope people recognize that this is what the secretary of the Navy has asked us to do," said Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (AW/NAC) Mike Stevens in a Jan. 14 interview with Navy Times.
"The order has been given and what I choose to do is look at it as opportunity — it's better to be a part of the solution than to stand back and complain."
This is an opportunity to , that’s his opportunity, he says, to bring the Navy’s job titles, where necessary and possible, in better alignment with the work being done.
Stevens said the review is set to start in late January. He wants to call on senior enlisted sailors from His plan is to use senior enlisted sailors from the Navy’s major communities to come forward with recommendations — based on deckplate ideas about how sailors describe their jobs. do most of the heavy lifting, but it’s not their opinions he’s looking for, eithe -- he wants to hear ideas from sailors on how best to describe their jobs. says he’s already in the early stages of planning the review, but plans to move out quickly and will start the effort this month.
"First thing that went through my mind is that this can’t be my idea — this has to come from the fleet," Stevens said. "It needs to work it’s way up through enlisted leadership so when they show up in Washington D.C. and go in my conference room and start working on this, that they are the voice of their people." he said.
To get that voice, he's sending these yet-to-be-names enlisted leaders out to the fleet to talk to sailors and leaders alike and get their opinions on what is valid today and what's not.
"Before I bring them in, I’m going to give them time to go out and canvass the fleet — to pulse the fleet and solicit thoughts, ideas and recommendations," he continued.
Stevens acknowledged that he's taking over a highly unpopular initiative. Thousands complained the effort was a waste of resources that would overturn coveted traditions. Navy risked Many of the complainants feel Mabus’ mandate is yet another way the Navy is messing with tradition.
"As a proud female Navy veteran, I can honestly say I couldn't care less if the word "man" was in any rate title," one woman commented in response to the Navy Times article. "I'm 100 percent confident that I could do any job just as well as a male counterpart… I wouldn't need to be coddled with some flowery politically correct term."
Seeking sailors' ideas
Stevens said the review will closely evaluate all job titles for changes and that there will be opportunities to make the case to save some popular ones to Mabus. And Stevens hears those arguments, too. He says there’s going to be a time and place where arguments can be made to keep a name, even if it has man or men in the title. And Mabus, he says will listen, though there are no guarantees.
"You may argue the point…that we shouldn't change [a name] because of A or B — but I don't think he wants us to come back and say we don't want to do anything," Stevens said.
Stevens points out that what many overlook is that And though he’s sensitive to tradition, he says what many sailors don’t realize is that that in the history of the Navy, rating titles have come and gone many times over the past 240 years.
"We've done this somewhere around 700 times — we've stood up rates, we've stood down rates," he said. "I was talking to a corpsman the other day and guess what they used to be called? Pharmacist's mate. You could go down the list and so many rates have had different titles."
Stevens honestly believes that when push come to shove — fleet sailors in these ratings can some up with viable alternatives that meet the Navy’s needs — they sometimes just need a push.
"It's good to step back once in a while and take a look at things," he said. "Where so many are hung up on taking the man or men out of the titles, I see this as an opportunity to take a holistic view at our rating tiles and see what works best and let sailors tell us."
He relayed a conversation he had earlier in the week at this week at the annual Surface Navy Symposium in Arlington, Virginia, where a sailor begged him not to change the job title, "engineman." with a sailor who was bending his year about not wanting to change the name of the engiineman rating.
If you had to change it though, Stevens said, what should it be?
The sailor said he needed a minute to think about it. The new title he came up with — propulsion mechanic. When Stevens pushed the sailor asking him to make a suggestion for a new name anyway, even though he didn’t like the idea. The sailor, Steven said ask for a minute to think about it.
A few minutes later, Stevens said he asked again and the sailor offered up the title of propulsion mechanic, Stevens said.
"That's just one sailor in five minutes," Stevens said. "So imagine if you have nearly 290,000 enlisted sailors out there who are going to have an opportunity to provide their leadership input — I think that what we're all going to be blown away with the ideas and recommendations they have."
Mark D. Faram is a former reporter for Navy Times. He was a senior writer covering personnel, cultural and historical issues. A nine-year active duty Navy veteran, Faram served from 1978 to 1987 as a Navy Diver and photographer.
