The Navy is constant its yearslong quest for a better-fitting uniform for feminine sailors with a fit-test survey in Norfolk, Virginia, this month. The aim is to get sufficient measurements to make sizes higher and extra correct for girls.
The venture comes at a time when complaints in regards to the match of feminine uniforms persist within the sea service, however service members in different branches wrestle to even purchase uniform objects.
Courtney Williams, a spokeswoman for the Navy Change — the command accountable for the venture, advised Navy.com in an e mail that “the present match of the U.S. Navy feminine uniform is just not standardized amongst all types and was developed within the Eighties.”
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The Navy is seeking to measure about 400 feminine sailors in order that it has the information to reevaluate the sizing and form of the feminine Service Costume White shirts, Khakis and Summer time Whites, Williams mentioned.
Whereas the survey will run till July 29, the Navy says that it has gotten greater than 100 girls over its unique aim of 400 to take part.
“Whereas the primary week was a little bit of a gradual begin, [researchers] noticed an inflow of individuals. … The second week’s schedule is now absolutely booked,” Williams mentioned.
Uniform match and sizing complaints should not new for the Navy. Since a minimum of the early 2010s, there have been research and surveys indicating that feminine sailors discovered a minimum of some uniforms uncomfortable and ill-fitting.
A 2013 Navy Ladies’s Uniform Survey, for instance, discovered that solely 54% of feminine chief petty officers and 42% of feminine officers had been happy with the skilled look of the then-blue Navy Working Uniform. That very same survey discovered that the consolation of varied service uniform elements was abysmally low, with solely about one-third of sailors discovering the objects comfy to put on.
The problem was additional exacerbated by the Navy’s push within the mid- to late-2010s to get girls to put on gender-neutral uniforms, resulting in outcry from each males and girls.
In 2017, annoyed feminine sailors efficiently lobbied Congress to incorporate in that 12 months’s protection coverage invoice a measure that ditched unisex hats for feminine officers and compelled the Navy to incorporate girls in future uniform put on exams, together with different reforms.
Williams mentioned that, whereas the Navy Change “has been capable of make quite a lot of updates and enhancements to our feminine uniform patterns, this venture will fulfill a extra complete method and set up consistency amongst all uniform varieties.”
Although the Navy is making progress within the match of feminine uniforms, different points for girls persist throughout the navy. A report launched in 2021, for instance, discovered that girls usually pay way more for uniforms than males. That is once they should buy uniforms in any respect. Points with a contractor have left girls within the Army and Air Power with none capacity to purchase the Improved Sizzling Climate Fight pants — a coveted merchandise, particularly as summer season temperatures have scorched a lot of the nation.
In the meantime, the navy’s latest service, the House Power, famous that it was designing its uniforms with girls in thoughts from the beginning when it unveiled its futuristic outfit final fall.
— Konstantin Toropin will be reached at konstantin.toropin@navy.com. Comply with him on Twitter @ktoropin.
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