These boots were made for women in Marine uniform

[USMCRET6391]

By Elise Castelli Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times

Cpl. Mary Simmons says she no longer feels as if she's playing dress-up in her brother's closet when she goes to work, now that the Marine Corps has introduced combat uniforms and boots designed to fit women.

"You don't look like you are wearing a sack," said Simmons, who helped field-test the new uniforms last year. "The old uniform looked like I didn't care about how I looked. But these make you look sharp and professional."

There have been women in the Marine Corps since 1918. But for the first time, they will be getting combat uniforms and boots specially designed for them. New gear is the result of female Marines who voiced their concerns, and the change is being followed in other military branches.

Larger roles for women

The changes represent one way the U.S. military is adapting to a fighting force in which women play larger and more crucial roles. Twenty-one U.S. servicewomen have been killed in action in Iraq (news - web sites).

"Women are taking on increasingly diverse roles in the military, and there are more of them every day," said Nancy Duff Campbell, co-president of the National Women's Law Center, which advocates equal treatment of women in the military.

Suggestions for changes in uniforms and boots came at the first Female Uniform Symposium in 2002. The four-day meeting was called by the former Marine Corps commandant, Gen. James Jones, to address complaints by women about their dress, said Mary Boyt, program manager of the Marine Corps Uniform Board.

Before the changes, women's dress uniforms were available, and they had access to jackets and maternity clothing. But when it came to boots and combat utility uniforms, women wore scaled-down versions of outfits designed for men, which often left women with clothing that had too much room in all the wrong places.

In remaking the uniforms, material was removed from the shoulders and sleeves and added to the length of the blouses so they fit more comfortably over the chest and hips. Likewise, material from the waist and legs of the pants was added to the hips for comfort, said Dee Townes, Marine Corps combat utility uniform project officer.

"It's more comfortable and it gets rid of excess material that bunches under gear," Townes said. "But when you see female Marines compared to male Marines, it doesn't accentuate the female physique at all; it just fits properly."

Of 100 female Marines who tested the new design, about 90 thought it was an improvement, Townes said.

Boots also were a key issue for women. Even in smaller sizes, the men's boots were too wide to offer the proper support, causing blisters and other foot injuries, said Christie Foster, the technical adviser for footwear at Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va.

The Marine Corps tested the boots in 2003, and received positive feedback from 75 percent of the 135 women who tried them.

"They felt like the shoe fit them better as they were doing the training," Foster said.

Field test

Capt. Alexandra Davis, 26, field-tested the new boots when she was based in Quantico.

"Whenever I had to wear the old combat boots, I had to get inserts because they didn't fit my arch quite right. I always had to compensate," Davis said.

The new sand-colored suede boots look better too, she said.

The boots, designed by Bates Uniform Footwear and Danner Inc., are available online and at some base exchanges and will be issued to female Marine recruits in May or June, Foster said.

Townes said the uniforms also have been available in the exchanges and will be issued to recruits later in the year.

Female Marines will not be required to wear the specially designed items, which run $75 to $125 for the boots and $35 each for the pants and blouse, the same as the unisex gear.

Foster said it might take a while for the new gear to gain acceptance among women because they don't want to be perceived as being treated differently from men.

"A lot of them don't want to be associated with the specialized group, with the stigma associated with female items," she said. "We're making it optional, not mandatory."

To Marines like Simmons, the new uniforms and boots are another sign of the services' growing acceptance of women among the ranks.

"It's an affirmation for females in the military," Simmons said.

[0311Marine]

Not to long ago during the "lipstick" fiasco, some female Marines also wanted to be allowed to wear the Males dress cover for the blues.

[333MP]

Now if only the Army could get it in gear. I hate how my BDU's have access material in some area. It makes it harder to put equipment on over it. As for the boots. I've never had a problem with them.