Complete Access: Women in the Bundeswehr and Male Ambivalence

Abstract

The Bundeswehr is currently undergoing large-scale transformations. Part of the change, which began in January 2001, is that women previously confined to noncombat roles (e.g., medical service; military bands) are now eligible to all classifications and trades within the German armed forces as a consequence of a ruling of the European Court of Justice in January 2000. This seems to indicate that the gender order in Germany, as well as in modern societies in general, is subject to change. Nevertheless, the literature on the integration of women in the armed forces suggests that this step does not meet with fullscale approval. A survey of male Bundeswehr soldiers reveals a good deal of ambivalence, although the data in general seem to document a relatively integration-positive climate in the Bundeswehr. Anticipated positive effects are accompanied by reservations in some segments, and in some more than others. Such attitudes have two sources: one is the traditional image of the soldier, the military and gender roles, and the other is status inconsistency, i.e., a fear of the competition presented by women soldiers. Making female integration a success despite these views requires an unmistakable signal from the political and military leadership that integration is wanted and that it is based on the principles of equality of treatment and of equal opportunity.

Contemporary Sexism in the South African Navy

“…This is congruent with findings from the German military (Kummel 2002), which also indicated greater support for gender integration in the navy than in the army.…”

“…This was expected, as it has been suggested that officers, because of their rank, career orientation, and closeness to the military and political leadership, may generally respond in the direction of social desirability and political correctness in the context of gender integration of the armed forces (Kummel 2002). Although officers scored lower on the measures, it never reached significance, and Hypothesis 4 is thus not supported.…”

Attitude of Men Towards Inclusion of Women in Bhutanese and Indian Army: A Literature Review

“…The research data shows that women have a limited acceptance in military (Stiehm, 1998) and often men resort to subtle forms of gender harassment to show their disapprobation of women in powerful positions in military (Miller, 1997). Kummel (2002) is of the opinion that it is not necessary that men are coherent in their views towards women in army. Depending on the approach and which part or people of the military are being studied, the analysis of their attitudes may yield different results (Drake, 2006; Firestone, 1987).…”

Recruitment, counter-recruitment and critical military studies

“…Military sociology, for its part, has tracked the arguments for the greater integration of women service personnel in differing national Global Discourse 251 contexts by outlining a ʽtheory of the variables that affect the degrees and nature of women's participation' (Segal 1995, 758). Whilst the need for personnel (a military variable) has arguably been the driving force behind expansion of women's military roles (Nuciari 2003), other variables associated with 'social structure' and 'culture' have been increasingly important in subsequent research which has explored the social construction of gender in the military (Archer 2013;Baaz and Stern 2013;Chapman 1999;Evans 2013;Kümmell 2002;Sasson-Levy 2003;Stachowitsch 2013). Gender is clearly an issue for recruitment and influences, in a basic sense, the division of the recruit pool according to sex (Woodward and Winter 2007).…”