THREAD: I’m really grateful to all the women who shared their story with me as I reported this article the past 3 months.

They told me that not only does this stereotype make no sense, it also looms over even the most dedicated servicewomen https://taskandpurpose.com/news/military-pregnancy-deployment
The stereotype assumes that women can get pregnant at a time of their choosing, which is rarely true.

It also assumes that a woman would not choose an easier, less intense way of skating out of deployment, like rolling an ankle or testing positive on a drug test
The stereotype is also, you guessed it, sexist. Most Americans want kids at some point in their lives, but only women in the military are shamed for having kids, and pregnancy is assumed to be a ticket for getting out of deployment or out of service. Why is that?
Many think pregnant women are a drag on readiness, and while pregnancy will always have an impact on readiness, it is marginal compared to other factors, like sports injuries or other medical issues
Barely 1% of any branch are pregnant or within the 1-year postpartum period. In the Army, 3k more soldiers are non-deployable due to legal problems, and in USMC, 700 more Marines are non-deployable for admin issues
It’s impossible to know whether any of those pregnancies were intended to skip deployment, but even if they all were, they still would not have the same impact as all the DUIs/ injuries other issues that keep troops at home
Why then, does the stereotype exist?

Sources pointed out a lack of knowledge about pregnancy among male service members, a cultural leaning towards misogyny, and a set of outdated policies that make military service and motherhood basically mutually exclusive
That last reason is especially important:

Simple things like inadequate child care or frequent PCS moves make being a military mom nearly impossible.

While that affects both moms and dads, one study found that women represented betw. 65 and 83% of parenthood-related discharges
“Gaps in child care could disproportionately affect military mothers, who are less likely to have a stay-at-home spouse and more likely to feel the strain of balancing family and military responsibilities,” one committee wrote.
This matters because when women are forced out by inadequate child care, it enforces the perception that military and motherhood are incompatible, which makes it easier to assume that newly pregnant servicewomen are trying to get out of duty
There’s also the widespread problem of misogyny - 68% of service women + vets said they experienced gender discrimination and/or sexual assault

49% military women said sexual bias/harassment/assault was the worst impact on their mental health. only 9% said combat deployment was
In that soup, pregnancy, as a symbol of womanhood, is also a target

One’s treatment depends on supervisor and unit culture. However, nearly every woman who spoke with me said they couldn’t sustain being both a mother and a military member, which helps keep the stereotype alive
Can the military make itself more friendly to parents and mothers without sacrificing readiness? Yes, in fact other countries like France have a higher retention rate for women than for men partly because they made child care such a high priority
TL;DR - Don’t be mean to pregnant ladies in the military, way more dudes get hurt doing dumb shit all the time, and somebody please get us some good child care in this country
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