Australian Army Journal

GENDER AND SEXUALITY
Sexuality, Cohesion, Masculinity and
Combat Motivation: Designing Personnel
Policy to Sustain Capability
acceptance and compliance, but would support the development of a new Army
culture that manages the major challenges of sexual relationships while avoiding
the pitfalls of a coercive approach.
Enculturation has attractive features but is not a simple alternative to a stricter or
more liberal approach; indeed a policy solution might meld elements of all three as
well as other approaches. In any event, policy-makers must define the challenges
before determining the policy responses.
Conclusion
This article has argued that, when integrating women into combat teams,
the policy challenges of sexuality are distinct from those of sex; the first arise from
mixing genders and the second from characteristics of gender. The integration
debate has centred on the latter, especially on ‘feminine weakness’ notions
grounded in the superior physical performance of the average male and problems
where this has been disregarded. However, in Australia, objective performance
standards are expected to make such concerns redundant, shifting the focus
to the former and confronting elements of ‘hyper-masculinity’. Such culture is
a proven and traditional driver of combat motivation and team cohesion, yet its
elements are problematic for integration. Building a gender-neutral combat culture
requires better understanding of the psychology of reputation and a modified
cohesion model.
The real policy challenges of mixing genders concern defining and managing
the possible risks to cohesion posed by sexuality. Regardless of whether any
sexual relationships actually occur, there is potential for them to affect the
social dynamics of the mixed group. The reader has been introduced to the
psychological mechanism of sex drive that distorts decision-making in favour
of illicit sex. That theory has been supported by data showing a consistent
defiance of prohibitions on sex in mixed units (with adverse effects on morale),
especially where soldiers are unpersuaded of a moral need for such regulation.
A failure of even severe punishment to deter points to the value of enculturation
approaches to regulate sexual behaviour. Such an approach has been contrasted
with both strict enforcement and liberality in order to explore policy implications,
however no policy recommendations are made: as yet there is insufficient
knowledge to do so. Currently, policy-makers simply don’t know what levels of
sexual interaction actually occur during training and operations, how disruptive
Australian Army Journal
Culture edition 2013, Volume X, Number 3 Page 72