Episode 191: Woman in Command: Life in the Army
The Broad Experience
The Broad Experience
5.0 • 592 Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2022
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In her early twenties, bored by her office job, Kelly joined the British Army for a life of adventure. This was just before 9/11. She’d grown up a relatively conflict-free world. Suddenly everything changed.
Kelly spent almost 19 years in the Army doing multiple jobs in different parts of the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan. She loved much of what Army life gave her. Other things were less appealing, from sexual harassment to fellow officers who couldn’t handle women in authority...to the loneliness of being a woman in command when one of your soldiers is killed.
In this show Kelly - who asked me not to use her last name so she could speak freely - looks back on her career, what she learned, and what she wishes could have been different in the ultimate male environment.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | What if cleaning wasn't a chore? |
| 0:03.2 | What if it was jazz? |
| 0:05.4 | Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Purdy and Fig, the plant-based cleaning spray that smells so good, you'll forget you're even cleaning. |
| 0:13.1 | Slide that cloth side to side. |
| 0:15.6 | Effortlessly glide from room to room. |
| 0:18.1 | A spray of lavender and camamile, a sprits of juniper and cardamom. |
| 0:22.4 | Your home is now transformed into a spa. Visit purdyanfig.com and change the way you clean forever. |
| 0:44.7 | Welcome to the Broad Experience, the show about women, the workplace and success. |
| 0:46.1 | I'm Ashley Milneight. |
| 0:54.5 | This time, working in the ultimate male environment can be exhilarating and deeply frustrating. |
| 0:58.1 | In the end, I had to just sit him down in my office and say, |
| 1:01.5 | it's either you or it's me and it's not going to be me. |
| 1:04.4 | So you either start talking to me, we make this relationship work. |
| 1:07.6 | You tell me what your issue is with me, or you have to leave, |
| 1:10.4 | and I will find another sergeant major because I'm not taking you to Afghanistan in the relationship we have as it is. Life as a woman in the armed services coming up on the broad |
| 1:17.5 | experience. At the end of 2020, I heard from a listener in the UK. He was recommending someone for the podcast, a former colleague of his in the army, a lieutenant colonel by the name of Kelly. It took me a while to get in touch with her, but I'm very glad I did. Kelly asked me not to use her last |
| 1:46.1 | name so she could speak freely about her almost 19-year career in the Army. She left a couple of years |
| 1:52.5 | ago and now works as a cyber security consultant. She says she didn't grow up thinking much about a |
| 1:59.2 | career. I was born and raised in Liverpool, a good working class family, had no real ambitions as a child |
| 2:06.4 | just to sort of go to school and enjoy being with my friends. And I didn't, I never sort of was |
| 2:12.2 | conditioned to sort of look beyond that, to be honest. And in fact, the school I was in, |
| 2:16.5 | the secondary school I was at, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Broad Experience, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Broad Experience and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.