Australian Army Journal

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GENDER AND SEXUALITY Sexuality, Cohesion, Masculinity and Combat Motivation: Designing Personnel Policy to Sustain Capability Introduction The Australian Army is integrating women into combat units. To realise the capability improvements this offers, leaders and policy-makers have a responsibility to identify and manage possible risks. Concerns based on individual female performance appear misplaced, but reduced cohesion is plausible given the damage to trust that can occur through both unwanted and consensual sexually motivated behaviour. Harassment has a clear disciplinary, administrative and capability impact and has prompted robust policy responses. Policy concerning consensual sexuality appears to have received little attention, although its parameters may have some impact on unacceptable behaviour. Furthermore, there is a need to resolve the tensions between a gender-neutral ideal and the value of exaggerated or ‘hyper’ masculinity for combat team cohesion. Concerns about combat-arm gender integration may well prove unfounded and in retrospect may seem as spurious as the arguments long proposed against the integration of African-American soldiers in the US military or gay soldiers here. On the other hand, gender differences in sexual attitudes, response and behaviour appear to have a biological basis, evolving from women’s greater risks and costs of reproduction. These differences may be more resistant to cultural change than racism or homophobia and the costs and benefits of integration may be perceived very differently by men and women. Certainly, traditional, proven approaches to generating combat group cohesion have features that appear antagonistic to integration and team trust is vulnerable to likely sexual interactions. If Army ignores these complexities or simply issues behavioural directives, effective integration may be delayed or compromised. This article seeks to prompt and inform debate and poses several fundamental questions: how might sexuality impact on cohesion and the motivation to fight? What levels of consensual sexual interaction, if any, can and should be accepted in the military combat team? What policy approaches might achieve these desired levels and what are the advantages and risks of coercive penalties? This discussion does not offer more than tentative answers, but it does explain why sexual behaviour is resistant to control and offers evidence of the power of such behaviour. To avoid sensationalising the discussion, specific Australian Defence Force (ADF) examples are not used, although both anecdotal and medical data are available. 1 A discussion of hyper-masculinity has a central role because it is strongly linked to cohesion and motivation. Australian Army Journal Culture edition 2013, Volume X, Number 3 Page 60
GENDER AND SEXUALITY Sexuality, Cohesion, Masculinity and Combat Motivation: Designing Personnel Policy to Sustain Capability The non-problem of female performance Many of the difficulties experienced by other militaries in their efforts to integrate women flow from gender differences in physical performance, use of different standards (such as the US ‘equality of effort’ metric) and consequent actual or perceived dilution of capability. 2 The initial failure of Canada’s 1989 integration of women in the infantry had its roots in male resentment of females who fell short of established performance standards but were retained to meet politically mandated quotas. 3 To avoid this, the government has directed that objective physical performance standards be applied in Australia. 4 A British survey conducted in 2010 5 indicates that, in countries where the option exists, few women can or want to achieve 6 combat-arm standards; thus females comprise only around 1% of integrated combat units for armies worldwide. 7 Consequently, the likely outcome is a small cohort of highly motivated women, ‘distilled’ by physical tests to rank above the male average on many other measures including leadership potential. A disproportionate number will probably serve as officers or in the Special Forces without any positive discrimination. 8 This distillation can be expected to compensate for gender-based differences 9 in average psychological performance such as the greater physical aggressiveness of males from an early age that some critics of integration highlight. 10 Women’s apparent lower risk preferences and subtly different cognition are a potential asset for the adaptive thinking that Army seeks, 11 although a recent study showed that, when freed from social norms, their military decision-making may be as aggressive as that of their male counterparts. 12 Meta-studies indicate that the psychological differences between the genders are not categorical but shifting distinctions of degree that selection criteria can address. 13 Consequently, concerns over performance dilution from integration appear misplaced; however the effect on work group cohesion is less certain. Integration and combat cohesion Most, but not all, earlier studies of female integration in training and barracks settings suggested either a possible or actual negative impact on cohesion. 14 The 2010 British review of female employment policy took a precautionary stance and recommended against further integration of women because of ‘potential risks associated with maintaining cohesion in small mixed-gender tactical teams engaged in highly-dangerous close-combat operations.’ 15 That decision was based on inconclusive results from a specially commissioned major study that included the combat troops integration experiences of other nations and the first analysis of the impact of mixed gender on small team cohesion in actual combat. 16 Australian Army Journal Culture edition 2013, Volume X, Number 3 Page 61
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Australian Army Culture edition 201
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CONTENTS CHIEF OF ARMY FOREWORD....
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CHIEF OF ARMY FOREWORD When I assum
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CHIEF OF ARMY FOREWORD her gender,
Page 9 and 10: EDITORIAL the way in which it deals
Page 11 and 12: HISTORY Serving Their Country: A Sh
Page 23 and 24: HISTORY ‘A Homosexual Institution
Page 41 and 42: GENDER AND SEXUALITY Steyrs and She
Page 59: GENDER AND SEXUALITY Sexuality, Coh
Page 63 and 64: GENDER AND SEXUALITY Sexuality, Coh
Page 79 and 80: RELIGION Religious Diversity in the
Page 97 and 98: IDENTITY Military Retirement: Refle
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IDENTITY Military Retirement: Refle
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DISCIPLINE Hazing in the ADF: A Cul
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OPERATIONAL CULTURE The Myths of Cu
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ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE Securing Arm
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ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE Learning to
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ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE Family Frien
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ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE From Institu
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OPINION Army’s Spirit Warrant Off
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OPINION Army’s Spirit Pride As RS
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OPINION Army’s Spirit Mateship ca
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OPINION Army’s Spirit Our people
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OPINION Army’s Spirit I think it
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OPINION Brothers and Sisters in Arm
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OPINION On the Culture of the Austr
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OPINION Fifty Shades of Grey: Offic
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CREATIVE WRITING Lost in Translatio
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CREATIVE WRITING Lost in Translatio
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NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS NOTES FOR CO
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