Militaries

Proving Themselves: The Status of LGBQ Officers

Citation:

Miller, Susan L. and Terry G. Lilley. 2014. “Proving Themselves: The Status of LGBQ Police Officers.” Sociology Compass 8 (4): 373-383. 

Authors: Susan L. Miller, Terry G. Lilley

Abstract:

The policing occupation, a bastion of hegemonic masculinity, is well known for its historical resistance to “difference,” whether among its own members or in society at large. Nowhere does this clash manifest as strongly as when LGBQ police officers join the force. LGBQ individuals have made great strides in breaking down some beliefs of the traditional and rigid police occupational culture. Still, more progress remains to be made toward dismantling the barriers of heterosexism and sexism that often permeate policing. This article explores the history of these barriers, the progress made, and the structural and individual level obstacles that remain. Policy recommendations and suggestions for future research are also made.

Topics: Gender, Women, Men, Gendered Power Relations, Masculinism, Governance, LGBTQ, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexuality

Year: 2014

'Cowboy' Policing versus 'the Softer Stuff;' Masculinities and Policekeeping

Citation:

Bevan, Marianne and Megan H. MacKenzie. 2012. "'Cowboy' Policing versus 'the Softer Stuff;' Masculinities and Policekeeping." International Feminist Journal of Politics 14 (4): 508-528.

Authors: Marianne Bevan, Megan H. MacKenzie

Abstract:

This article examines masculinities in relation to the New Zealand police force Community Policing Pilot Program in Timor-Leste (East Timor). We find that despite calls for less militarized, more community-centered approaches to security sector reform, various forms of militarized masculinities persisted within the culture of the New Zealand Police during its international mission. In doing so, we not only complicate singular representations of militarized masculinity, but also challenge accounts that see masculinity as a monolithic negative, violent construct that is engaged with in only problematic ways.

Topics: Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Security Sector Reform, Violence Regions: Oceania Countries: New Zealand, Timor-Leste

Year: 2012

The Myth of the Warrior: Martial Masculinity and the End of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

Citation:

Allsep, L. Michael. 2013. "The Myth of the Warrior: Martial Masculinity and the End of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'" Journal of Homosexuality 60 (2-3): 381-400. 

Author: L. Michael Allsep

Abstract:

The image of the male warrior still dominates military culture, to the exclusion of women and homosexuals. Complicating the picture is a technological revolution that promises to widen the current gap between the myth and reality of the modern warrior even further. Nonetheless, despite long arguing that homosexuals were a direct threat to military culture and effectiveness, the Pentagon has largely treated the end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell as a policy matter. The difficulties still experienced by women in the armed services 40 years after they were first incorporated in significant numbers indicates that this response will be insufficient to address the deeper cultural issues. Gender issues implicate deeply held beliefs and values that persist even in the face of years of official admonishment and denial. Unless the military begins to transparently bridge the gap between the myth and reality of the modern warrior, military service without discrimination based on sexual orientation will remain an unachieved goal.

 

Topics: Gender, Women, Men, Masculinity/ies, LGBTQ, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexuality Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2013

Gender & Nation

Citation:

Yuval-Davis, Nira. 2000. Gender & Nation. London: SAGE Publications.

Author: Nira Yuval-Davis

Abstract:

Nira Yuval-Davis provides an authoritative overview and critique of writings on gender and nationhood, presenting an original analysis of the ways gender relations affect and are affected by national projects and processes. In Gender and Nation Yuval-Davis argues that the construction of nationhood involves specific notions of both `manhood' and `womanhood'. She examines the contribution of gender relations to key dimensions of nationalist projects - the nation's reproduction, its culture and citizenship - as well as to national conflicts and wars, exploring the contesting relations between feminism and nationalism.

Gender and Nation is an important contribution to the debates on citizenship, gender and nation. (Amazon)

Annotation:

Table of Contents:

Preface

1. Theorizing Gender and Nation

2. Women and the Biological Reproduction of the Nation

3. Cultural Reproduction and Gender Relations

4. Citizenship and Difference

5. Gendered Militaries, Gendered Wars

6. Women, Ethnicity and Empowerment: Towards Transversal Politics

Topics: Armed Conflict, Citizenship, Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Nationalism

Year: 2000

Real Men Use Nonlethals: Appeals to Masculinity in Marketing Police Weaponry

Citation:

Wozniak, Jesse, and Christopher Uggen. 2009. “Real Men Use Nonlethals: Appeals to Masculinity in Marketing Police Weaponry.” Feminist Criminology 4 (3): 275–93. doi:10.1177/1557085109332676.

Authors: Jesse Wozniak, Christopher Uggen

Abstract:

In recent years, a range of new nonlethal weapons have been introduced for use by police officers, military personnel, and other consumers. This article examines how manufacturers are employing ideals of masculinity as both physical dominance and technical expertise in marketing these weapons to police officials. Based on a case study of a major weapons manufacturer’s educational and sales conference, the authors explore how marketing appeals are adapted to suit a hypermasculine police subculture. Connell’s theory of masculinities is employed to understand how such a tightly defined subculture absorbs challenges to its core values of hegemonic hypermasculinity and reimagines itself to keep those core values intact.

Keywords: weapons, policing, masculinity, Connell, justice, stun guns, conducted energy device, police habitus, gender and policing

Topics: Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Weapons /Arms Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2009

Women in the Canadian Forces: Between Legal and Social Integration

Citation:

Winslow, Donna, and Jason Dunn. 2002. “Women in the Canadian Forces: Between Legal and Social Integration.” Current Sociology 50 (5): 641–67. doi:10.1177/0011392102050005003.

Authors: Donna Winslow, Jason Dunn

Abstract:

In this article the authors examine the integration of women into the Canadian armed forces. The definition of integration has two parts. The first is a legal standard where women and men are incorporated as equals into the military. The second is of a social nature. Here, integration is defined as the full acceptance of women as equals. The authors argue that the combat forces are far removed from civilian society. As a result they emphasize the values and attitudes of the traditionally male-oriented military organization and, in particular, masculine models of the warrior, thus resisting female integration. This article is based primarily upon documentary research on gender integration in the Canadian armed forces. The authors also examine how scholars have addressed change within military organizations; in particular, how certain sectors of the military react differently to change. In addition, informal interviews were conducted with forces personnel.

Topics: Civil Society, Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Women, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Canada

Year: 2002

Women’s Rights, Culture, and Conflict Implementing Gender Policy in Amboko Refugee Camp, Chad

Citation:

Hurley, Suzanne L. 2012. "Women’s Rights, Culture, and Conflict Implementing Gender Policy in Amboko Refugee Camp, Chad." Master's thesis, Graduate Program in Environmental Studies, York University.

Author: Suzanne L. Hurley

Abstract:

During armed conflict, gender-based violence is commonly used as a core military strategy to terrorize and demoralize the enemy, and to destroy social stability. Further, women and girls reaching internationally-sanctioned refugee camps continue to experience human rights violations as an extension of the conflict or because of heightened patriarchal practices. While the gender policy framework in UN camps is comprehensive, policy implementation is insufficient to provide equality and protection to refugee girls and women.

This dissertation is an examination of the implementation of international gender policy intended to promote and protect women's rights in Amboko Refugee Camp, Chad; a UNHCR camp established to shelter 12,000 refugees after the 2003 conflict in north-western Central African Republic. A critical social research framework using interviews, focus group discussions, informant surveys, and archival research is employed to analyse the nature of human rights risks to girls and women in the camp. Subsequently, through the prism of implementation theory, variables contributing to the implementation gap between policy and practice are identified.

The research findings establish that women's rights are routinely violated in the private sphere. International rights violations including early and forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and wife battery are routinely practiced within the family unit with impunity. The research suggests that the existing humanitarian rational-comprehensive policy implementation approach is inappropriate for highly contested policies requiring transformation of deeply entrenched gender roles, premised on the subordination and inferiority of women within the family, the community, and the state. Other identified critical variables contributing to implementation challenges include: agency commitment, the exclusion of location-specific causal analysis in the formulation of policy, inflexible goals and procedures, inadequate timing and resources, a judicial system which discriminates against women, and host-country and target group opposition to the policy.

An alternative synthesis model for gender policy implementation is proffered which emphasizes multi-level leadership, understanding of the contextual environment, conflict resolution at the target level, and community planning of implementation strategies. Critical to the proposed model is a refugee-centred process, involving women and men, which progressively lays the foundation for stakeholder leadership, commitment and collaboration to gender-transformative programming.

Through theory informing humanitarian field practice, the research expands the understanding of the relationship between international humanitarian obligations and sexual and gender-based violence against girls and women practiced in the private sphere. This research also contributes to the ongoing development of implementation theory in the area of highly contested global policy implementation.

Keywords: Chad, refugees, women's rights, Gender, human rights, gender policy, development policy, gender roles, gender based violence, harmful traditional practices, policy implementation, refugee law

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Refugee/IDP Camps, Gender, Women, Girls, Gender-Based Violence, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Sexual Violence

Year: 2012

The Girl Child and Armed Conflict: Recognizing and Addressing Grave Violations of Girls’ Human Rights

Citation:

Mazurana, Dyan, and Khristopher Carlson. 2006. "The Girl Child and Armed Conflict: Recognizing and Addressing Grave Violations of Girls’ Human Rights." UN Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) Expert Group Meeting, Florence, September 25-28.

Authors: Dyan Mazurana, Khristopher Carlson

Abstract:

During armed conflict, girls are subject to widespread and, at times, systematic forms of human rights violations that have mental, emotional, spiritual, physical and material repercussions. These violations include illegal detention with or without family members, abduction and forced removal from families and homes, disappearances, torture and other inhuman treatment, amputation and mutilation, forced recruitment into fighting forces and groups, slavery, sexual exploitation, increased exposure to HIV/AIDS, and a wide range of physical and sexual violations, including rape, enforced pregnancy, forced prostitution, forced marriage and forced child-bearing. There is urgent need for better documentation, monitoring and reporting on the extreme suffering that armed conflict inflicts on girls, as well as on the many roles girls play during conflict and its aftermath. Such information and response mechanisms are needed for the purpose of strengthening and developing policy and programs to prevent and or address these grave rights violations. This paper documents and analyses the grave human rights violations girls endure during situations of armed conflict and offers recommendations on preventing and or addressing those harms. The paper begins by offering a concise overview of current trends in armed conflict and the impact of armed conflict on children. It discusses existing international initiatives that identify grave and systematic violations against girls during armed conflict and reviews the most pertinent international legal standards relating to these violations. To better understand the gender dimensions, the paper describes and analyzes the experiences of girls during armed conflicts, noting gendered patterns to the grave rights violations committed against them. The paper offers examples of some best practices to address these violations. The paper concludes with concrete recommendations to governments, the United Nations and NGOs.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Girls, Health, HIV/AIDS, Households, International Law, International Organizations, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, NGOs, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Sexual Slavery, Torture, Sexual Torture

Year: 2006

Gender Violence or Violence Against Women? The Treatment of Forced Marriage in the Special Court for Sierra Leone

Citation:

Slater, Rachel. 2012. “Gender Violence or Violence Against Women? The Treatment of Forced Marriage in the Special Court for Sierra Leone.” Melbourne Journal of International Law 13 (2):  732.

Author: Rachel Slater

Abstract:

The article considers the case for viewing forced marriage, a prevalent form of violence suffered by women during the Sierra Leone conflict, as a gender crime. The article begins with a brief examination of the Special Court for Sierra Leone trials, commonly known as the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council Trial, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council Appeal, the Revolutionary United Front Trial and the Charles Taylor Trial. Part IV then puts forward a conceptualisation of forced marriage as a gender crime and not purely violence suffered by women. It is argued that in order to fully reflect the nature of the harm suffered, the gender element of the violence must be foregrounded. This argument rejects calls for forced marriage to be viewed as enslavement or sexual slavery and emphasises the specific harm stemming from the label ‘wife’ as demonstrative of the force of socially assigned gender roles; these roles are integral to the crime rather than just forming the broader social context. This suggests that forced marriage as a gender crime should be seen as a stand-alone crime separate from other instances of forced marriage. In Part V and Part VI, it will be argued that the categorisation of forced marriage as a gender crime is a vital step towards the recognition of this type of gender violence as being within the scope of international law. Specifically, this article considers the characterisation of forced marriage under international criminal law in light of its interest to international refugee law, where similar violence might be raised as ‘persecution’ under the definition in art 1A(2) of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, International Tribunals & Special Courts, War Crimes, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexual Violence, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2012

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