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Imagine trying to land a helicopter on a ship in the middle of the night. It鈥檚 dark, so you wear night-vision goggles, narrowing your field of vision as if you鈥檙e looking through a straw.

For Mallory Decker, a doctoral candidate studying organizational behavior, this was part of her reality during the 11 years she spent as a naval helicopter pilot.

鈥淭hat definitely was my least favorite part, flying at night,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just kind of inherently scary.鈥�

Decker deployed for about nine months to the USS Nimitz, an aircraft carrier. Despite how harrowing her job could be, she enjoyed flying and deployment.

鈥淚t鈥檚 like if you were on a sports team, and all you ever did was practice and never had a game,鈥� she explained. 鈥淒eployment is like, 鈥楢ll right. Finally, I'm in the game. I'm doing the things that I trained for.鈥欌��

Of course, deployment came with some drawbacks. Decker recalled that toward the end of it, food supplies started to run low. She and the others onboard had to subsist on oatmeal and pasta. Due to its rarity, vanilla creamer was like currency, she laughed.

A Navy legacy

Decker鈥檚 ties to the Navy began in childhood. Her father, who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, inspired her to attend the school.

鈥淚 liked the idea of how challenging it would be, not just in academics, but physically, mentally,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 was drawn to that, and then I was really hoping to make the same sort of close friendships that I'd seen my dad make.鈥�

Decker graduated with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in English and then embarked on a new venture: studying for a master鈥檚 degree in the United Kingdom. After obtaining her master鈥檚 in international and European politics from the University of Edinburgh, she owed at least five years of naval service.

When it came time to choose her discipline within the Navy, Decker was attracted not only to the prospect of flying but also to the aviation subculture, which she half-jokingly compared to Top Gun.

鈥淎viation, I think, is just a little bit more laid-back,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here are more rules about how much sleep you get, so you're a little bit better rested. Maybe that makes you a little bit happier. And then everybody loves to fly that goes to fly.鈥�

Working in a man鈥檚 world

Decker didn鈥檛 always envision herself as a researcher. By the time she left the Navy, her attitude had shifted. Expecting her first child, she knew that erratic shift schedules made staying in aviation out of the question.

In identifying a new field that would appeal to her as 鈥渁 nerdy introvert who likes to read and write,鈥� she landed on academia, realizing there was one subject she鈥檇 happily devote her life to: gender in the workplace.听

While growing up, Decker never felt limited by her gender. During her naval deployment, she recalled feeling respected by the other pilots in her squadron, about a quarter of whom were also women. It was only toward the end of her military tenure, when she worked in the House of Representatives and then as a NATO aide-de-camp to a three-star British flag officer in 2017, that she first noticed gender disparity in the workplace.

鈥淪ome of my best girlfriends are also helicopter pilots,鈥� she said. 鈥淥n these lower levels, I was seeing women in these traditionally male-dominated spaces. And I'm like, 鈥榊eah, women are here, what's the big deal?鈥� And then when I finally got up to these really high levels, it was like, 鈥極h, women are actually not here.鈥欌��

Decker stressed that she felt personally supported by her boss at NATO. But attending assemblies full of NATO leaders highlighted just how few women held high-ranking positions in the organization. Women were so outnumbered that she made a game out of counting them during assemblies. She would think to herself 鈥淭here are more bald men in here than there are women,鈥� noting that there were less than five women in a room of more than 100.听

Life at Leeds

Decker鈥檚 experience in male-dominated workplaces informs her research passions. Some of her recent projects have focused on the gender pay gap, women working together in male-dominated industries and menopause鈥檚 impact on women leaders. The latter topic is the one she鈥檚 currently most excited about, partly because of the lack of knowledge about menopause and because of how much it varies from person to person.

鈥淭here are some women who have little to no symptoms,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd then there are other women who have symptoms for a decade that are debilitating or really interfere with their lives. There isn鈥檛 a standard menopause experience.鈥�

Her next step in the doctoral program will be to propose her dissertation topic, which focuses on women鈥檚 relationships and identity in the workplace. Decker hopes her research will improve employees鈥� workplace experiences overall.

鈥淲e spend the majority of our lives at work, so I want to work toward making that experience better for everyone,鈥� she said.