Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Gender Inequalities in the Military Service: A Systematic Literature Review

  • Review
  • Published:
Sexuality & Culture Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the literature regarding gender inequalities in the military service. In doing so, it discloses challenges and opportunities for women’s integration and finds new avenues for future research. Recent scientific research has evidenced that women still represent a growing minority in most Western militaries. Women’s integration deserves equal opportunities across all branches and levels of responsibility in the military, however, their expansion to ground combat roles is still a challenge to the military and policy-makers. Scholars have also reported about the decision to increase the number of women in combat roles, as it may potentiate adverse experiences, due to closer proximity to men in circumstances with little or no privacy. Conversely, scientific research has shown that more egalitarian women reported significantly less sexual harassment victimization. Furthermore, our insights suggest that it might be fruitful to integrate women in ground combat roles as special forces’ operators, with a view to induce a reduction of marginalization and sexual harassment, by gaining respect in a male-dominant culture. The presented idea should be interpreted with caution and needs to be supported by empirical research; although we are convinced that future research will be revealing and might represent a game-changing situation to women inequalities in the armed forces.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Al-Ali, N., & Pratt, N. (2008). Women’s organizing and the conflict in Iraq since 2003. Feminist Review,88(1), 74–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alvinius, A., Krekula, C., & Larsson, G. (2018). Managing visibility and differentiating in recruitment of women as leaders in the armed forces. Journal of Gender Studies,27(5), 534–546.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beere, C., King, D., Beere, D., & King, L. (1984). The sex-role egalitarianism scale: A measure of attitudes toward equality between the sexes. Sex Roles,10(7–8), 563–576.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bostock, D., & Daley, J. (2007). Lifetime and current sexual assault and harassment victimization rates of active-duty United States Air Force women. Violence Against Women,13(9), 927–944.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brenner, J., & Savran, B. (2008). The disengagement from Gaza: A feminist approach to a political crisis. Women & Therapy,32(1), 88–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, M. (2012). “A Woman in the Army is still a Woman”: Representation of Women in U.S. Military Recruiting advertisements for the all-volunteer force. Journal of Women, Politics & Policy,33(2), 151–175.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bumiller, E., & Shanker, T. (2013). Pentagon is set to lift combat ban for women. Retrieved December 4, 2018 from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/us/pentagon-says-it-is-lifting-ban-on-women-in-combat.html?_r1⁄40.

  • Burrelli, D. (2013). Women in combat: Issues for congress. Library of Congress Washington DC Congressional Research Service.

  • Campbell, J., Garza, M., Gielen, A., O’campo, P., Kub, J., Dienemann, J., et al. (2003). Intimate partner violence and abuse among active duty military women. Violence Against Women,9(9), 1072–1092.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carreiras, H. (2006). Gender and the military: Women in the armed forces of western democracies. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carreiras, H. (2012). Gender relations in the armed forces: Does the draft make a difference? Sicherheit und Frieden (S + F)/Security and Peace, 30(1), 19–24. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24233117.

  • Carreiras, H. (2015). Gender and civil–military relations in advanced democracies. Res Militaris (1), women in the military, Part One, 1–18. Retrieved February 10, 2019 from http://resmilitaris.net/ressources/10217/79/res_militaris_article_carreiras_gender_and_civil-military_relations_in_advanced_democracies.pdf.

  • Carreiras, H., & Kümmel, G. (Eds.). (2008). Off limits: The cults of the body and social homogeneity as discoursive weapons targeting gender integration in the military. In Women in the military and in armed conflict (pp. 29–47). VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

  • Chan, D., Chow, S., Lam, C., & Cheung, S. (2008). Examining the job-related, psychological and physical outcomes of workplace sexual harassment: A meta-analytic review. Psychology of Women Quarterly,32(4), 362–376.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cock, J. (1989). Manpower and militarisation: The role of women in the SANDF. In J. Cock & L. Nathan (Eds.), War and society: The militarisation of South Africa (pp. 51–67). Cape Town: David Phillip.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coombes, P., & Nicholson, J. (2013). Business models and their relationship with marketing: A systematic literature review. Industrial Marketing Management,42(5), 656–664.

    Google Scholar 

  • Derks, B., Van Laar, C., & Ellemers, N. (2016). The queen been phenomenon: Why women leaders distance themselves from junior women. The Leadership Quarterly,27(3), 456–469.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellegaard, O., & Wallin, J. (2015). The bibliometric analysis of scholarly production: How great is the impact? Scientometrics,105(3), 1809–1831.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elsevier. (2018). Women’s studies international forum. https://www.journals.elsevier.com/womens-studies-international-forum.

  • Eysenck, H. (1995). Problems with meta-analysis. In I. Chalmers & D. Altman (Eds.), Systematic reviews. London: BMJ Publication Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferber, M., & Lowry, H. (1976). Women: The new reserve army of the unemployed. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society,1(3, Part 2), 213–232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Firestone, J., & Harris, R. (2003). Perceptions of effectiveness of response to sexual harassment in the U.S. military, 1988 and 1995. Gender, Work & Organization,10(1), 42–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitriani, R., & Matthews, R. (2016). Women in ground close combat. The RUSI Journal,161(1), 14–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, C., & Paine, C. (2019). Gender differences in peer review outcomes and manuscript impact at six journals of ecology and evolution. Ecology and Evolution,9(6), 3599–3619.

    Google Scholar 

  • Given, L. (2008). The Sage encyclopedia of qualitative research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Golan, G. (1997). Militarization and gender: The Israeli experience. In Women’s studies international forum (vol. 20, no. 5–6, pp. 581–586).

  • Gottlieb, D. (1978). Women soldiers: On joining the army. Youth & Society,10(2), 159–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenburg, J. (2017). New military femininities: Humanitarian violence and the gendered work of war among U.S. servicewomen. Gender, Place & Culture,24(8), 1107–1126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greer, T. (2017). Career development for women veterans: Facilitating successful transitions from military service to civilian employment. Advances in Developing Human Resources,19(1), 54–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hancock, D., & Algozzine, B. (2016). Doing case study research: A practical guide for beginning researchers. New York City, NY: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hourani, L., Williams, J., Bray, R., Wilk, J., & Hoge, C. (2016). Gender differences in posttraumatic stress disorder and help seeking in the U.S. Army. Journal of Women’s Health,25(1), 22–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hsieh, H., & Shannon, S. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research,15(9), 1277–1288.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacsó, P. (2010). Comparison of journal impact ranking in the SCImago Journal & Country Rank and the Journal Citation Reports databases. Online Information Review,34(4), 642–657.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, L., & King, D. (1997). Sex-Role egalitarianism scale: Development, psychometric properties, and recommendations for future research. Psychology of Women Quarterly,21(1), 71–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mulrine, A. (2013). Women in combat units: Could it reduce sexual assault in the military? Retrieved December 18, 2018 from https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2013/0125/Women-in-combat-units-Could-it-reduce-sexual-assault-in-the-military.

  • Pawelczyk, J. (2017). It wasn’t because a woman couldn’t do a man’s job: Uncovering gender ideologies in the context of interviews with American female and male war veterans. Gender and Language,11(1), 121–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pittaway, L., Robertson, M., Munir, K., Denyer, D., & Neely, A. (2004). Networking and innovation: A systematic review of the evidence. International Journal of Management Reviews,5, 137–169.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reis, J., Amorim, M., Melão, N., & Matos, P. (2018). Digital transformation: A literature review and guidelines for future research. In World conference on information systems and technologies (pp. 411–421). Cham: Springer.

  • Reis, J., Gonçalves, R., Menezes, S., & Kaczynska, M. (2020). The obstacles women face in gaining access to special operations forces. In Á. Rocha & R. Pereira (Eds.), Developments and advances in defense and security (pp. 281–291). Singapore: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reis, J., Santo, P., & Melão, N. (2019). Artificial intelligence in government services: A systematic literature review. In World conference on information systems and technologies (pp. 241–252). Cham: Springer.

  • Robbins, J., & Ben-Eliezer, U. (2000). New roles or “new times”? Gender inequality and militarism in Israel’s nation-in-arms. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society,7(3), 309–342.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, L., Kaminski, R., Parmley, A., Knudson, K., & Fancher, P. (2003). The effects of peer group climate on intimate partner violence among married male U.S. Army soldiers. Violence Against Women,9(9), 1045–1071.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sasson-Levy, O. (2007). Contradictory consequences of mandatory conscription: The case of women secretaries in the Israeli military. Gender & society,21(4), 481–507.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2009). Research methods for business students. London: Pearson Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Savell, J., Woelfel, J., Collins, B., & Bentler, P. (1979). A study of male and female soldiers’ beliefs about the “appropriateness” of various jobs for women in the Army. Sex Roles,5(1), 41–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Segal, L. (2008). Gender, war and militarism: Making and questioning the links. Feminist Review,88(1), 21–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Springer. (2018). Sex roles. Retrieved February 2, 2019 from https://www.springer.com/psychology/journal/11199.

  • Stachowitsch, S. (2012). Military gender integration and foreign policy in the United States: A feminist international relations perspective. Security Dialogue,43(4), 305–321.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tayyeb, A., & Greenburg, J. (2017). Bad papers: The invisible and increasing costs of war for excluded veterans. Providence, RI: Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Torgerson, C. (2003). Systematic reviews. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tranfield, D., Denyer, D., & Smart, P. (2003). Towards a methodology for developing evidence-informed management knowledge by means of systematic review. British Journal of Management,14, 207–222.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vogt, D., Bruce, T., Street, A., & Stafford, J. (2007). Attitudes toward women and tolerance for sexual harassment among reservists. Violence Against Women,13(9), 879–900.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weatherill, R., Vogt, D., Taft, C., King, L., King, D., & Shipherd, J. (2011). Training experiences as mediators of the association between gender-role egalitarianism and women’s adjustment to Marine recruit training. Sex Roles,64, 348–359.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilén, N., & Heinecken, L. (2018). Regendering the South African army: Inclusion, reversal and displacement. Gender, Work & Organization,25(6), 670–686.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson, S., & Callister, L. (2010). Giving birth: The voices of Ghanaian women. Health Care for Women International,31(3), 201–220.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woelfel, J. (1981). Women in the United States Army. Sex Roles,7(8), 785–800.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodward, R., & Winter, P. (2006). Gender and the limits to diversity in the contemporary British Army. Gender, Work & Organization,13(1), 45–67.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This project is under the sponsorship of Erasmus+ program. We would like to thank the European Commission for their support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism, GOVCOPP, Aveiro, Portugal

    João Reis

  2. Department of Management and Leadership, CINAMIL, Lisbon, Portugal

    Sofia Menezes

Authors
  1. João Reis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sofia Menezes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to João Reis.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interests

The authors declare they have no conflict of interests.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Reis, J., Menezes, S. Gender Inequalities in the Military Service: A Systematic Literature Review. Sexuality & Culture 24, 1004–1018 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-019-09662-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-019-09662-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation