E-4, that should be it for women. :>)
I didn't have all that much contact with women in the military, but my mom was one of those incompetent female O's, and growing up she had a couple BBQs for the women in her service groups every summer. It's been 40 years, but I still remember some of the personal histories, and deeply regret I didn't have the sense to write them down. I've seen lots of goofy threads on FR, but this proposition takes the cake.
Your Mom was one sharp cookie, obviously. I learned long ago that the Army really DOES move on it’s stomach, LOL!
When I was in charge of my ‘men,’ I made sure they were well fed, had hot water to shave with (no matter where we were) and I kept a footlocker full of ‘off limits’ treats that they weren’t ‘supposed ‘to have, but they got anyway at the end of a long, hard day.
Those guys would’ve gone to hell and back for me, if I had asked them to. I’m sure your Mom’s people felt the same way about her. ;)
Leading by example really isn’t that hard. If your people see you’re willing to do the hard work too, and/or that they can DEPEND upon you, you’ve got it made. If you tell them the ‘why’ behind what they’re doing, ‘X needs to happen TODAY, so Y can happen TOMORROW’, people get it.