Women leaders serve as role models, whether they realize it or not

The Army's Surgeon General, Lt. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho, said she tried not to consider the role her gender played on her professional development as she climbed higher through the ranks in the Army. But at some point, she said, it would become inevitable that somebody would point it out to her. Just in 2011, in fact, as she had been named the first female, first non-physician to be appointed as the Army surgeon general, she was approached several times about the uniqueness of her position. "The U.K. called, when I was in Afghanistan, and said congratulations -- 'how does it feel to know the entire world is watching to see if you succeed or fail?'" Horoho said. "I have to tell you, I was holding the phone and I thought, 'I'm not sure if I should be happy with the call or if I just got insulted.'" Both Horoho and Lt. Gen. Flora D. Darpino, the Army's judge advocate general, or JAG, spoke Jan. 22, before the Women Mayors' Caucus in Washington, D.C. The caucus is part of the larger United States Conference of Mayors, for mayors of cities with 30,000 or more citizens. The group held its 82nd Winter Meeting, Jan 22-24, in the nation's capital. Horoho said more recently she was approached by the Israeli surgeon general. "He said 'you need to know when you got selected, it was the shot that was heard around the world. Because if the United States places a female in their highest position within Army medicine, then it caused other nations to look and say why aren't we doing that? Why aren't we following suit?'" Later, she said, two positions in the Israeli military opened up for women to command. And now there are discussions about should they be general officers. "That's a huge change," she said.

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Retrieved on 24 Jan 2014

Written by C. Todd Lopez

http://www.army.mil/article/118716/Women_leaders_serve_as_role_models__whether_they_realize_it_or_not/