How Perceptions and Expectations Are Formed

There has been much discussion this week about the influence of culture (even parental influence) on our perceptions about gender and the way men and women act in society. During my public relations career in the Navy, I had the dubious distinction of serving as a senior spokesperson for two scandals that involved men abusing women. One scandal, which occurred in 1991, has become known as the Navy "Tailhook Scandal." The other  involved abuse of a young female midshipman who was handcuffed to a urinal in a male bathroom and photographed as a "prank."

In both cases, at first, the abuse was characterized as routine fun, a kind of "boys will be boys and girls will be girls" thing. Later, the Navy realized the magnitude of the abuse and finally woke up to the fact that such abuses have their roots in organizational culture and can destroy morale and the social fabric of even the best institutions. According to PBS's Frontline, the investigations into the Navy's Tailhook scandal suggested "that the entrenched attitudes that permitted a Tailhook to happen -- the ugly side of the warrior culture -- survive[ed] within the naval establishment and prevent[ed] it from moving on."

Click here to read more about Tailhook. It involved naval aviators at an annual convention in Las Vegas getting drunk, groping women, participating in sexually explicit skits, etc. Finally, one young female aviator, an officer and an aide to an admiral, had enough. After being groped in a hallway and having her clothes nearly torn off she reported the incident to her senior officers. After experiencing delays in the handling of the case, she went to the news media, who ran with the story, which went international.

As director of the Navy's news operations in the Pentagon, my office had to deal with an angry press corps and public. It was an important education for me. The abuses by naval aviators -- and even early attempts by Navy leaders to cover up these abuses -- sickened me. I am proud, however, of the Navy public relations leaders above me and around me in the Pentagon. We took a tough line by insisting that the Navy release to reporters and the public as much information about Tailhook abuses as possible (even photographs depicting abuse, which were taken by participants at Tailhook) and as quickly as we could (without violating privacy laws or interfering with the investigations that were underway). This information proved embarrassing to the Navy but it would have been even more shameful to withhold this information just  because it was embarrassing.

I remember coming home from work one night after dealing with the Tailhook episode for months, wondering how men, especially my fellow officers, could treat women this way. I took my two young boys aside and had a long talk about this and explained how we cannot afford to let our society or culture lead to mistreatment of women or other minorities this way.

Throughout the rest of my career in the Navy, I saw positive changes occur as a result of what we learned in Tailhook and other similar scandals. More opportunities have been provided to women, and they have proven to be just as capable of being great leaders as are men. Since Tailhook, the Navy and the Department of Defense have made great strides in changing an organizational culture (e.g., "warrior mentality") that denigrated women. I hope our public relations profession learns the same lessons without having to endure scandals like those faced by the Navy. I hope all of you learn to identify organizational cultures around you that prevent equal treatment of women and men. When you do encounter such policies and activities, as a public relations professional you are honor-bound to try and change them!

It's about time we learned,
Mark