Suchergebnisse

"[This book] considers the various was that the American servicewoman has been represented throughout the 20th century and how those representations impact the roles she is permitted to inhabit. While women have a relatively short history in the American military, the last century shows an evolution of women's direct participation in war despite the need to overcome societal sex-role expectations. The primary focus is on the American case, but Emerald Archer also introduces a comparative element, showing how women's integration in the military differs in other countries, including Great Britain, Canada, and Israel. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the book draws on military history, theory, and social psychology to offer a more complete and integrated history of women in the military and their representation in society." -- Back cover

Three thousand years of recorded history has reserved warfighting for men and, in 2017, we continue to rely on ideas of hegemonic masculinity to understand who participates in war. However, women have played a vital role in the context of warfare from its inception. In the twenty-first century, women's service is critical to the types of conflicts militaries regularly confront – specifically, counter insurgency and peacekeeping operations. The intersection of gender and security today provides new routes to peaceful prosperity globally. Applying gender initiatives to militaries – whether it means creating a gender balanced force, the integration of women into combat arms, or the adoption of gender perspectives by male soldiers – could fundamentally shift culture and revolutionize the organization. Indeed, the structure of armed forces, the demographics of military elites, and the soldier's orientation to operational imperatives will all change as a result. Taking seriously the concept of gender in the military context, as I argue in this paper, constitutes a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). This alternative understanding of how militaries approach war, in direct opposition to how militaries have engaged historically, bring new possibilities to the forefront. In this paper, I will review the literature on RMA and introduce a re-conceptualized RMA to include gender and culture as critical variables. Concrete examples from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will illustrate the significant advantages this new paradigm brings, from increased operational effectiveness to the maintenance of security in a globalized world.

Gendered stereotypes in the US military context often result in the creation of barriers for women. Constant confrontation with these barriers may negatively impact a servicewoman's career. The author argues that gendered stereotypes in the US Marine Corps (USMC) have the potential to undermine a female Marine's performance, and sometimes the performance of others around her. Through the application of ethnographic content analysis to thirty-five in-depth interviews (seventeen female and eighteen male Marines), this article investigates the possible consequences of gendered stereotypes in the USMC. Four themes regarding the origination, socialization, and reinforcement of gender-role stereotypes in the USMC emerge through the interview process. Findings suggest gender-role stereotypes influence (1) the perceived abilities of female Marines, (2) the initial socialization of Marines, (3) camaraderie and opportunities for female Marine mentorship, and (4) a culture of double standards. The aforementioned themes are compared to findings in the literature and implications for camaraderie, shared sense of mission, and leadership are discussed. [Reprinted by permission; copyright Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society/Sage Publications Inc.]

Gendered stereotypes in the US military context often result in the creation of barriers for women. Constant confrontation with these barriers may negatively impact a servicewoman's career. The author argues that gendered stereotypes in the US Marine Corps (USMC) have the potential to undermine a female Marine's performance, and sometimes the performance of others around her. Through the application of ethnographic content analysis to thirty-five in-depth interviews (seventeen female and eighteen male Marines), this article investigates the possible consequences of gendered stereotypes in the USMC. Four themes regarding the origination, socialization, and reinforcement of gender-role stereotypes in the USMC emerge through the interview process. Findings suggest gender-role stereotypes influence (1) the perceived abilities of female Marines, (2) the initial socialization of Marines, (3) camaraderie and opportunities for female Marine mentorship, and (4) a culture of double standards. The aforementioned themes are compared to findings in the literature and implications for camaraderie, shared sense of mission, and leadership are discussed.

The authors suggest that scholars mean very different things when they refer to the civil–military gap. To illustrate the point, the authors conceptualize the gap in terms of four distinct ideal types and show that scholars have referred to each variant as the civil–military gap at different times. Though the authors recognize that the four ideal types—cultural, demographic, policy preference, and institutional—are not always mutually exclusive, the authors suggest that they are divergent enough to warrant consideration as distinct variants and that their specification can enhance the civil–military relations literature by helping scholars identify and untangle the causes and effects of the gap.