Women commanding officers not empathic, follow 'my way or highway’ approach: Top general flags 'problems' with female army officers

Lieutenant General Rajeev Puri in a letter to the Eastern Army Commander Lieutenant General Ram Chander Tiwari sought the focus to shift to “gender neutrality” instead of “gender equality” as he pointed out that there has been an increase in the number of officer management issues in units commanded by women officers in the last one year.

“During the last one year, there has been an increase in the number of officer management issues in units commanded by women officers. These are indicative of serious concerns regarding interpersonal relations. Most cases pertain to lack of tact and understanding of the personal requirements of unit personnel, especially officers. The emphasis is more on conflict termination through might, rather than conflict resolution through mutual respect. A prejudice and mistrust was evident in few of the cases in the recent past, the Hindustan Times quoted the Lieutenant General as saying in his letter.

"It results in high levels of stress in the units," he wrote in his letter dated October 1, adding that even though overambition is harmful for the organisation, "few COs have taken ‘low profile, low initiative’ to command.”

In the five-page letter, Puri cited an “in-house review” conducted by the Panagarh-based 17 mountain strike corps of the force.

He went on to call the findings of the review a "pragmatic performance analysis” of eight women commanding officers (COs) under the Brahmastra Corps."

The letter also alleged that women officers lack empathy which stems from their need to "overcompensate since they perceive that any sign of compassion may be indicative of a gender trait of being soft in their dealings."

While he acknowledged that complaints by women COs regarding disrespect of their authority have been received, he went on to call them "mundane" alleging that there has been a trend where COs file complaints at the drop of a hat.

Puri also accused women COs of lacking a consultative approach as he dubbed them to have a  ‘my way or highway’ kind of approach.

He attributed the behaviour to factors like: “not trained to be commanders”, “desire to prove oneself in a predominantly male field”, “perceived gender bias” and “ensuring a mean facade”, as per the report.

Suggesting a bunch of course correction, Puri wrote: “A comprehensive policy on gender neutrality be issued by the Adjutant General’s (AG) branch. Further neutrality in posting and selection profiles be implemented... While attempting proportionate representations in assignments like UN missions/foreign postings, the Military Secretary (MS)/AG’s branch should also monitor proportionate tasking in all assignments within the organisation,”

Meanwhile, women officers found the letter have disturbing since it questioned their work ethic and pointed out that this matter could have been solved in a more dignified way.