THE NEED TO TRANSFORM MALE-DOMINATED ORGANIZATION

It is said that "when we look at the culture of an organization,  we are actually looking at the sum total of the behaviors of all the employees." 

Way back 2008, I was just a young, naive and idealistic Officer whom the personnel described as feisty yet knew nothing of the job. Well, that perception started when I was entrusted to be the Admin and Personnel Officer of the District. As days went by, I noticed that most of the problems being handled by my Office were cases involving immorality, abandonment, child abuse, withdrawal of support,  and forms of gender-based violations.  Although, these cases were treated normal by some personnel more so by the senior non-officers, especially that we belong to the uniformed service, I could not just sit there and do nothing for the complainants.  Unfortunately for me during that time, we were not yet educated nor trained to handle such complaints and nobody from our Unit could guide me on the procedures for handling the same.  Accordingly, most of the offenders during that time were middle-grade enlisted men and new recruits.  Of course there was this gnawing feeling of sadness deep inside my heart being the only female Officer on board. There was a time when I asked questions to my self; what kind of family are these personnel trying to raise?  Is there a way to somehow change the situation? Do I have to expect more complainants? Will I allow myself to be plagued by the systemic problem?  I was literally culture shocked by then.  Nonetheless, I was left with no choice but to act on those mounting complaints filed before me.  I practically started with digging into files and references pertaining to violations of our Code and Conduct and Discipline.  Thereafter, I was able to recommend to our Head of Office to put an end to old practices that tainted the image of our Office such as proper documentation of complaints where the violators were made to face sanctions based on the authorized table of punishments for offenses committed; couples with relationship conflicts were made to undergo series of marriage counseling; and those with offenses related to non-support of dependents were made to file allotment forms with the Finance Center.  All these measures were duly approved by the Head of Office.  However, not everyone were happy about what I did because offenders were used to settle such disputes on their own terms by providing false hope to their complainants, no documentation, no disciplinary actions thereafter.  It came to a point that they branded me as a feminist and no empathy for our own comrades.  But they were wrong, they have forgotten that as an Officer, I may have the responsibility to look out for their welfare but I also have the responsibility to discipline the erring ones.  Though of course, I just ignored their comments, I realize that I also have the responsibility to constantly educate our personnel on the existing code of conduct and discipline and to emphasize to them not to resort to undocumented amicable settlements nor succumb  to the old norms of "take charge or discharge policy." Indeed, there is a need to transform our uniformed personnel in the way they perceived matters of the heart.  Eventually, I was able to initiate activities such as Troop Information and Education on love, courtship, marriage, responsible parenthood, and gender sensitivity which are integrated in our moral recovery efforts.  Although "culture transformation is not for the faint of heart," I strongly believe that there is hope in collaboration with other cognizant Agencies guided by our Superiors whose gender lens have been opened.