A Sister is in Charge! By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

April 6, 2014

A Sister is in Charge!
By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

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(TriceEdneyWire.com) – I know we are a few days beyond Women’s History Month, but Black women didn’t get all the recognition due us during the various celebrations, so I decided to begin celebrating Black women’s history every day!

We really don’t have to look hard around us to find that Black women have always been doing important things.  As Dr. Dorothy I. Height often said, “We Black women don’t always get to do what we want to do, but we always do what we have to do”.

I can just imagine all that a sister had to do to get to be the first woman and the first African American to be named a Commander of the United States Army of the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.  She received that honor in 2012.  Think about all the things she had to do in a “man’s world” to achieve the rank of Major General.  Again, she proved her leadership abilities when she was the only woman to serve as the 51st Quartermaster General of the United States Army and Commandant of the United States Army Quartermaster School at Ft. Lee, Virginia.  She has continued to be on an upward spiral since that time.

I am sure you’ve read the stories, as I have, about how difficult it is being a woman in any military career field without being assaulted, denigrated and passed over for important jobs.  As head of a women’s organization, I frequently get calls from women who are still having a tough time while in the military and an even tougher time gaining benefits others take for granted once they are out of the military.

Right in the middle of the most recent tragedy at Ft. Hood, Major General Gwen Bingham was formally named Commander of the United States Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM). Again, she is the first woman to hold such a position and the first African American to do so.  President Barack Obama had sent her nomination for promotion to Major General to Congress on March 20, 2013 and it was approved.

I don’t know the details of what she will be doing as Commander of TACOM, but I understand it’s a big job because TACOM develops and designs military vehicles and weapons systems for our armed forces. Those I know who’ve served in the armed forces tell me that’s big, but I know she’s up to the job.

It has often been said that professional women can’t have it all.  I am not sure of what “having it all” means, but in addition to her career, she’s been married to the same husband for 30 years and has two adult children.

Very few times do we hear of a successful woman being used as a role model to inspire others, especially not in the military—another bastion of male dominance. That is a position that society seems almost always to have reserved for men, but Major General Bingham has just broken that barrier!  I have the feeling she will break many more.  I am sure every young woman is smiling with this news that tells them, “Even in the military, women are opening doors that were never before open to women”. I can imagine women in the military are applauding the fact that another glass ceiling has been cracked!

This sister hails from Troy, Alabama, and is a graduate of the University of Alabama where she was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps as a distinguished military graduate of Army ROTC.  In addition to other degrees, she holds a Master of Science in national security strategy and resources from the National Defense University.