I Run War Games. Too Often, I Am the Only Woman in the Room.

I would rather more men learned how to make peace than more women learned how to make war.

I'm a 23 year military veteran. This article gives a mistaken impression that wargaming is something that people only do at the highest levels of the military or in big think tanks like Rand corporation. Wargaming is something that is done at every echelon of the military at the battalion level or above (and sometimes even lower). It is a crucial part of the mission planning process and the process never ends until the mission is over. I also happen to have two daughters. I encouraged them to pursue anything they wanted, and I deliberately exposed them to traditional "boy" stuff, war history, etc. THEY WEREN'T THE SLIGHTEST BIT INTERESTED. And that's OK, but my point is, as boys my friends and I were interested in war or wargaming from a very young age. If a girl wanted to do this with us, we would have had no problem with it. But they didn't. They were more interested in taking care of baby dolls, which was an interest I just couldn't understand in the slightest. Whether this is innate or cultural is another debate (I believe it's a little of both), but you can't deny it exists. Only about 15% of the military is female anyway, and a lot of those get into traditional female jobs like nursing, so from this number alone it's not surprising that more females aren't involved in wargaming. You want women more involved, then get them interested. But I think you are swimming against the current on that one.

Becca, Thanks so much, a very interesting piece. Back in the mid-eighties when I was a young Army major assigned to the J-2 Directorate in the Pentagon, I found out there was an opening for a “war gamer” in the J-8 Directorate. My deep (and very nerdy) knowledge of military history and my degree in Operations Research must have impressed the Marine O-6 that interviewed me; I was hired on the spot. For three years I had an absolute ball. My job was to wargame any conflicts that might be generated in the course of the high-level, politico-military games put on for the benefit of policy makers both within and without DoD. That meant adapting existing games or inventing new ones. I immersed myself in orders-of-battle, technology, oplans, and attrition calculations. One of the things that I learned very quickly is how politics can intrude into so-called objective simulations when the results are impolitic. I got myself into some trouble with the Navy when one of the games I invented allowed a Chinese cruise missile to penetrate a carrier task force’s air defenses and strike the carrier, halting flight ops for a few hours. Another time I got into trouble with NATO when the scenario I created for a Soviet/Warsaw Pact attack had the 3rd Shock Army breaking through the Belgian defenses and the French coming to the rescue. So many taboos violated! Have fun!

Becca , Thank you for your valuable contributions to our National Defense and for sharing this article. I hope all the male and female teachers out their will post it for all their students...and that organizations like Girl Scouts / Scouting USA will do the same . As one of only three female Naval officers attending the Naval War College 1977- 1978 , I experienced some of the same things you have when it came time for war games . The women's approach was more inclusive and collaborative but just as deadly. Those teams with the three women " won ". Coincidence ? I don't think so . We made a few of our male colleagues think " outside the box ". Those were the days before women were assigned to ships and combat aircraft, so those of us who hadn't " been there " were often assumed to be less " military " . I faced a lot of that in my 28 year Navy career. Thankfully, we now have military women serving at the highest levels with combat experience and dedicated women like you collaborating in both government positions and the private sector. Keep up the good work ...it's a Team !

"I'm tired..." Perhaps Ms. Wasser should study evolutionary psychology and neuroscience, which provide physiological and cross-cultural and historic evidence why women are less interested in war, or war games. If she is tired perhaps this work is not for her.

I wonder why you’re unable to recruit many other women to learn the skills and then join you.

I thought one day humans would evolve out of war and that boys and men would escape the social oppression that is designed to mold them into believing war is their biological destiny. Death is all our destiny but it doesn’t mean we have to obsess over it. That is what war seems to be: the arena for the death obsessed.

What's truly disturbing is that, to our leaders, human lives really are little more than plastic soldiers. Otherwise they wouldn't start war after needless war.

Why in the world does gender diversity matter in this domain? "Girl Security, an American nonprofit that encourages young women to pursue national-security careers" What a waste of money...

Women are no more pacifist oriented than men. Plenty of history , recent and and ancient , bear witness to this. Statements such as "women make wars more inclusive" belong in the theater of the absurd, not the theater of war.

I have been in war. If the author wants to know why there were wasn’t gender diversity there, I can tell her.

Men and women are different.

War gaming is like a war simulator.

Another FFRDC, MITRE, was the leader in the more technical arena of computer simulation interoperability; that among other things, served as the foundation for Theater Level Command Post Exercises (e.g. Ulchi Focus Lens) for the last couple decades). You may be cheered to know that this breakthrough technology effort was usually headed by a woman and its staffing was about equally split. Going back almost 25 years, the highest levels of the military were very supportive and appreciative of these contributions - with a women out front. Most of this technology has now transitioned to the private sector, although I think MITRE's leadership is still recognized and (I think) still headed by a woman. Furthermore, I do not think any of these women were less than highly respected.

As I young girl, I did play Axis & Allies quite a lot. I won almost every game and it taught me that boys and men were absolutely crushed when beaten by a girl engaged in a stereotypically male pursuit. Some of them cried. They thought that losing to me meant they were not masculine enough. These strict gender roles punish both girls and boys. And it’s not just games, but so many aspects of life. After college, I was still playing war games, but I had moved on to creating plans with real people. We were gaming online and moving in small, roving teams. Some of us spied on the enemy and relayed the enemy’s position. The team that I led would wait for the trigger happy teams to engage first. Then I would lead our team into the fray where our support would tip the balance or where we could cleave the enemy’s forces for a divide and conquer strategy. My fellow gamers could hear my voice and see my instructions, so they knew I was a woman. But it didn’t seem to matter much, maybe because they couldn’t see what I looked like. I was told that I sounded confident and that made it easy for others to follow me. If it weren’t for video games, I might never have seen myself as a leader type person. In real life, my leadership style confuses certain men. They don’t understand that I influence others, I don’t command them. It’s more effective in the long run. Hearts & minds.

I had the opportunity to participate in two simulated wargames in grad school. There only two women in a roomful of men. My approach was somewhat unorthodox as I tried to persuade multiple countries to act as peacemakers instead of rattling swords. I’m proud to say that in the end, I had garnered more points than any other Player-both times!! Your point about women being more inclusive is borne out by my own experience some 40 years ago!!

A good article, and I appreciate your insight into some of the "war gaming" processes for real world prep/considerations. Many sharp minds are needed for potential conflict considerations in today's world, and as a 59 year old male who is an avid military history reader; I have often wondered how much "gaming" is done within our gov't, Think Tanks, and universities for the purpose of conflict considerations. Pre/Actual/Post Operations study for any given possible war. I do wonder if this was done for the 2003 invasion of Iraq; as post-ops didn't appear well thought out (politically & militarily). As for myself, I've concluded several years and studies ago that we need as many sharp minds from females and males to be able to digest and plan all the possible events from an conflict/war. I hope your efforts, Becca Wasser; is helping to turn that to reality. Thank you.

Every once in a while, I let my mind wander. I try to imagine what the world would look like if women had been allowed to participate fully in society throughout history. I think of all the scientists, engineers, doctors, movie directors, etc. we never had because women were not given a chance to a achieve all they could. I think about diseases that might have been cured 50 or 100 years ago, and wars that may never have occurred, if women had fair and equal opportunities throughout human existence. Fortunately, the world has changed, though perhaps much too slowly. Thanks for your contribution, Becca.

I am a white male who works in a white male dominated profession (mathematics) and for almost 50 years has enjoyed an even more white male dominated hobby (hobby wargaming). I am disheartened by many of the comments so far, that either explain why Ms. Wasser ought not to be interested in war or that she should not expect to just be given a seat as a woman -- she evidently wasn't just given a seat. In mathematics, almost every talented American woman mathematician whom I have known for much time has told me a story in which she was told that mathematics might not be for her. As a white male mathematician, I have not suffered this systematic discouragement. Even in my career now, since I look like what people expect a mathematician to look like, I enjoy some automatic basic deference -- no one asks me to get coffee. I applaud both Ms. Wasser and Ms. Aguilar for their gumption in breaking into their fields in spite of all of the discouragement. Ms. Aguilar says that it is up to them to be good role models for the next generation. While it is good to be so, this is also a heavy burden to bear. I think that it is even more important for the more senior (mostly white) men in their fields to be aware enough of systemic inequities and to work for an environment where the talents of others, including these two women, can flourish. If these men show leadership, then they will also be good role models for the men, as well as the women, whom they mentor.

I never heard of this job until I read this article and I find it pretty amazing! I wish I had the opportunity, back in high school, to be given the chance to play one of these war games. Congrats on this very well written article, makes me want to read RAND reports more often!

Myself and 3 women created a war game in graduate school. It never occurred to me to recruit another guy to our team because the women I worked with were all so skilled, enthusiastic and helpful. Our legacy is one of the country's largest student-led, comms-linked crisis diplomacy simulations, still going strong today and with participation from the US intelligence community and most branches of the military.

Ms Wasser, I am a relatively young and junior female officer. During my operational tour, I was often the only female (officer or enlisted) on an operational crew, and in my current staff job am now almost daily the only female in the room during ops and meetings. While I share your observations and consternation, I don't think the lack of women is at this point in history is surprising. Even in 2019, you and perhaps even I are still among the trailblazers. Maybe in a hundred years, after generations of children of both genders/all races have military role models they can relate to more, and are encouraged to pursue a career in defense, we will see a more diverse group of career officers. (Or if we implement universal conscription!) Even for my generation, the military was still a "boys thing," and there were very few visible female role models. As a child, sometimes when all I wanted to do was play with tanks, I was given dolls. Luckily I kept my "tomboy" interests and, with the help of men who did see my potential (as I simply never met a woman in the military until I joined) I went on to finally realize my dream of becoming an officer. The niggling feeling that I don't belong has always been there, but I have hopes that it will not be so with subsequent generations. So I believe that it's up to us all to be good role models for the next gen, in hopes of making the military reflect diversity in the US. The enlisted ranks are starting to do this, but the officer corps lags

To be fair, men are significantly more interested in war and simulations of it than women are. I find it hard to believe the issue of lack of diversity is caused by misogyny instead of a lack of interest. The author argues that girls don’t grow up with the knowledge and those that do aren’t always available for the job, but the first argument is countered by the lack of interest among women for combat (female soldiers are much rarer than male ones) and the second is a logical fallacy; even among men interested in such jobs, there are only a few who are available for it. While I am not against the idea of training more girls to think more critically about military scenarios (at the very minimum it’s a lesson on problem solving) I find it annoying that the author argues that misogyny is the reason why the disparity exists. Maybe the women already in the field could do something to prove that they can handle running the war gaming events? If they expect to just be given a seat because they are women then they do not understand how reality works- war is not a game where everyone should be included; history is littered with the corpses of men and women caused by poor decisions from people who inherited the job rather than earned it.