How the navy has or has not changed regarding the treatment of women:
Despite raising their right hand and swearing to serve their country, women in the Navy are still often seen as weak and undeserving of a place in the hallowed halls of warriors. In today’s Navy, changes in the treatment of women need to focus more on mindset instead of the institution.
Over the last decade the Navy has made multiple institutional changes, the most pivotal of which being the integration of women on submarines. Additionally, it has recognized the multiple roles they play as Sailor, wife, mother, daughter, and leader. In that effort, they have increased parental leave, recognized both parents’ roles in child rearing, and made uniform and PT standard changes in support of these various roles. However, despite these changes which have increased women’s abilities to deploy and serve in different capacities, their service is still deemed sub-standard.
Change is hard for everyone. It takes a strong person to accept change especially when you have committed to an organization for so long causing it to be rooted in your identity. To further improve the treatment of women in the Navy, we need to continue to provide more unbiased opportunities for both women and men to lead at all levels based not on gender but on qualification, skillset or experience. Furthermore, the negative mindset towards women that still plagues the Navy today needs to be addressed head-on by leaders at the department, command, and upper echelon levels. While change starts at home it is reinforced in public.
I have been very fortunate to have deployed and worked alongside many women who also believe in strong female leadership and continuing to change our Navy. I will forever be grateful for the immense support that I have received throughout my career from not just women but men alike; however, I do recognize that I may be an exception to this.
I look forward to the continued route that the institution is taking as well as the growth our Sailors are making within our Navy ranks. I am excited for the change that I may one day also bring for those women that choose to enlist in our Navy in the years to come.
Petty Officer Pavelich’s biography follows:
CRYPTOLOGIC TECHNICIAN INTERPRATIVE
(IW/AW/NAO)
AMANDA PAVELICH
Petty Officer First Class Pavelich was born in Albuquerque, NM, and graduated from Mayfield High School. She enlisted in the United States Navy on July 07, 2008, and attended Basic and Seaman Apprentice Training in Great Lakes, IL. She then attended the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, where she successfully completed the Basic Mandarin course.
Petty Officer First Class Pavelich was detailed to NIOC Hawaii in November 2010, where she served on the FIOC Battlewatch. She also served as an operator for three missions, to include; SWEARBOW, Analysis and Production and Information Operations Cell. Additionally she held duties as Division Assistant Command Fitness Leader, and Volunteer Coordinator for the Junior Enlisted Organization. During this tour, she earned the Enlisted Information Warfare Specialist Qualification, and was awarded a Navy Achievement Medal (NAM) for her superior performance.
In May of 2015; Petty Officer First Class Pavelich volunteered for duty as an Aircrewman. She attended and graduated from the Aircrew Pipeline to include; Water Survival School, two SERE schools, and the EP-3 Familiarization Course. In September 2015, Petty Officer First Class Pavelich was reassigned to NIOC Hawaii in a Direct Support Aircrew billet as a Language Analyst, where she was promoted to CTI1. She went on to earn both Naval Aircrew Operator and Enlisted Air Warfare (NAO/AW) qualifications. While assigned as an Operator, Petty Officer Pavelich twice deployed to Detachment Kadena, Okinawa for over 224 days. Petty Officer First Class Pavelich also served as Department Assistant Command Fitness Leader.
In May 2018, Petty Officer First Class Pavelich’s next tour was at NIOC Hawaii, where she was assigned to the 501 Combat Mission Team (CMT). She served as a Language Analyst and Target Digital Network Analyst across six different missions. She held leadership collateral duties as NIOC HAWAII First Class Petty Officer Association Master at Arms, Directorate Voting Assistant Coordinator, Department Leading Petty Officer, Department Building Petty Officer, and Division Leading Petty Officer. Additionally she supported families as the Ombudsman for her husband’s ship, the USS WAYNE E. MEYER. She also spearheaded the first-ever fitness program tailored specifically for prenatal and postpartum Sailors and their spouses.
In June 2021, Petty Officer First Class Pavelich returned to NIOC Hawaii and was re-assigned to the 501 Combat Mission Team (CMT), where she continues to work as a Language Analyst and Target Digital Network Analyst under three different missions. She holds senior leadership roles as Directorate Leading Petty Officer and Department Leading Petty Officer for over 300 personnel. Additionally, she is performing leadership collateral duties as NIOC HAWAII First Class Petty Officer Association Vice President and President, N9B Directorate Sponsorship Coordinator and N9B Directorate Assistant Command Fitness Leader.
Her personal decorations include Navy Achievement Medal (4).
Petty Officer First Class Pavelich is married to Chief Petty Officer Ryan Pavelich of Temecula, California. Together they have three sons and one daughter.
Station HYPO 
9 March 2023 at 18:21
Sounds like a very well educated young sailor to work with. I know the ‘O’-branch
WAVES I was fortunate to work with during my career were always great sailors.
Jim King
CTOC Ret.
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10 March 2023 at 01:33
Officer First Class Pavelich. Accomplished, smart and squared away. Look at that uniform! A chip off the Lopez block, her dad, Captain Bryan Lopez, and forward looking like her Aunt, Barbara Lopez (NCR HI).
Proud uncle.
Clyde C. Lopez
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10 March 2023 at 04:10
From reading her biography and her uncle’s comment above, coupled to Jim King’s acknowledgment of her overall career, and keeping in mind that PO1C Pavelich enlisted on 7 July 2008, one must wonder why isn’t this outstanding example of a sailor in the United States Navy a chief of master chief?
This having been said, I trust the Navy—as an organization—to recognize talent. Patience is a virtue.
I suspect it won’t be long before we read that CTI1C Amanda Pavelich is now CTIC Amanda Pavelich.
Thank you to Amanda and her husband and to the Lopez family for your service to our country.
Go Navy! Stay Navy!
Andy McKane
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10 March 2023 at 14:58
I’m so proud of you, Amanda!
Love, Dad
(Bryan Lopez)
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10 March 2023 at 18:04
In 1955/6 there were no female sailors at IB or at March AB and none that I ever encountered in the CTR, CTT (after 1959) or CTI (after 1963) operational spaces at Guam, Karamursel , San Miguel or Key West and, certainly none at sea with DESRON 18 or in the VQ-2. In 1979, my two oldest daughters were denied enlistment in the Navy because of a gender quota. The Airforce recruited them on the merits of their enlistment scores and physical fitness. My youngest daughter fought her way into an Academy class of 1000 men and 300 women through the Prep School and even today, as an accomplished Navy/National Cryptologist, still has to, in my opinion, combat the male perceptions of the 1950’s.
PO1 Pavelich is a VQ, front-line cryptologic warrior like her dad, but she has had to outperform, even her dad, to get there. I think the point of her articulate essay “How the Navy has or has not changed regarding the treatment of women” is that, despite modest gains in Navy at sea/undersea/air warfighting billets, there is still a glass ceiling, a blind spot, that adversely affects female evaluations, assignments, duty and promotions. Like Andy says, she should be a Chief, and I’m hoping she beats the obvious odds and gets there.
Clyde Lopez
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11 March 2023 at 21:33
Thank you Clyde Lopez for expanding on your earlier remark. I suspect that PO1 Pavelich will get there to Chief—and beyond. From June 2002 to July 2011, I worked for the USDA Forest Service in Region One, aka the Northern Region. I spent five months with wildland firefighters, both male and female. I knew several amazing female smokejumpers including the late Margarita Phillips. Margarita was one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever known. She prided herself in doing tasks many thought impossible.
In the R-1 regional office in Missoula, I worked with many women, a number of whom were staff directors or assistant staff directors. I well remember Gail Kimbell, the first female director in Region 1, and the first female Chief of the USDA Forest Service. (Amazing woman who, while Regional Forester in Missoula, always worked in her fire boots. Later, as Chief in Washington, D.C., we heard that Gail was pressured by folks outside of the Forest Service to “wear high heels to work.”) I worked closely with a number of other women in the regional office. The women I had the pleasure of working with—and serving under—in the Forest Service were individuals I’ll never forget.
Amanda is obviously a squared away sailor. Patience is a virtue. So “hang on until we (as a society) get there” (to paraphrase what James “Jimmy” Roosevelt told various world leaders in early 1941).
Andy McKane
(Former HN, United States Navy. I’ll do my best to serve the Navy and our country until the day I die.)
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22 March 2023 at 14:11
I couldn’t be prouder! Stay strong and continue with the integrity, ambition and morals you were taught. I’m proud of you Sweetheart. I love you! Mom
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