Gender and the Military: Women in the Armed Forces of Western Democracies

by Carreiras; Helena

• ISBN13: 9780415383585
• ISBN10: 0415383587
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-09-25
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Women in the military and their relationship with war are subjects that often provoke controversial reactions that reveal entrenched stereotypes and cultural values central to many societies. This is the first comparative, cross-national study of the participation of women in the armed forces of NATO countries. Besides an analysis of this key topic, a critique of existing theoretical models and the proposal of a revised analytical framework, This new study employs mixed-methodological research design. Unlike previous works, focuses on the interplay of various analytical levels (general societal trends, organizational features and individual orientations) and combines quantitative and qualitative data: a large N-analysis based on general policies and statistical information concerning every country in the sample with more in-depth case-studies. it includes original empirical data regarding the presence of women in the armed forces of NATO countries. It proposes an index of genderinclusiveness and assesses the factors (social, economic, political, military) that affect women's military roles. It also presents two new key case studies Portugal and the Netherlands - based on both documentary sources and in-depth interviews of both men and women officers in the two countries. This book will be of great interest to all students and scholars of strategic studies, gender and women studies and military history.

Author Biography

Helena Carreiras is professor at the Department of Sociology of the University Institute for Labor, Business, and Technologies (ISCTE) and researcher at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology (CIES)

Table of Contents

List of figures	xi
List of tables	xiii
Foreword	xv
Acknowledgments	xvii
List of abbreviations	xix
Introduction	1	(4)
1 Women in the military: a global overview	5	(20)
Women and warfare in historical perspective	5	(7)
Factors affecting women's military roles	12	(11)
Research design and techniques	23	(2)
2 Gender relations, gendered organizations, and the military	25	(30)
Social structures and gender regimes	25	(5)
Gender relations in organizations	30	(10)
The military as a gendered organization	40	(15)
3 Social and political dilemmas of women's military service	55	(17)
Women, work, and the family	55	(4)
Citizens and soldiers: the political dilemmas of female military service	59	(13)
4 The military institution and social change	72	(25)
The military in the post-Cold War period: redefining strategic orientations	72	(3)
Organizational challenges and the military profession	75	(11)
Military effectiveness and gender integration	86	(11)
5 Gender integration in the armed forces: a cross-national comparison of policies and practices in the NATO countries	97	(40)
The position of women in the military: representation and integration policies	98	(19)
Explaining gender incorporation patterns: a tentative test of hypotheses	117	(9)
Concluding remarks	126	(2)
Appendix	128	(9)
6 Portugal and the Netherlands: military and social contexts	137	(28)
The military and the challenge of organizational restructuring	137	(11)
Patterns and policies of gender integration	148	(12)
Social trends and the situation of women	160	(5)
7 Interpersonal dynamics of gender integration: the case of the officer corps	165	(32)
Organizational structure and individual orientations	166	(3)
Cultural constraints and officers' responses to gender integration	169	(20)
Concluding remarks	189	(3)
Appendix	192	(5)
Conclusion	197	(12)
Factors affecting WMP: a synthetic account of empirical results	198	(5)
Feminist theories, gender interests, and women's military participation	203	(2)
Military organizational change and women's motivations	205	(1)
Social change and the future of WMP	206	(3)
Notes	209	(9)
Bibliography	218	(31)
Index	249