“That’s what she said!” : gender integration in the Canadian Armed Forces with a focus on the experience of female soldiers in the combat arms
department or school: Arts and Social Sciences, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Franck, Billie
issued: 2023-02-23T22:37:47Z
issued: 2022
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: This thesis focuses on gender integration in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) based on veteran female combat arms soldiers' experiences. I argue that the military institution presents itself as progressive and gender neutral but is, in fact, a gendered institution with distinct organizational thinking that maintains gender segregation. The federal government's goal of increasing the number of female soldiers employed in the CAF to 25 % by 2026 is too broad and does not address the systemic issues rendered invisible when institutional change is desired. The division of labour, based on military occupations with the least number of female soldiers, exacerbates the social relations and the organizational logic, which maintains the low representation of female soldiers. I focus on the combat arms occupations because these occupations have historically had the most resistance to female integration and have the most prestige and proximity to the fighting. I treated the disembodied soldier as a universal category that is abstract and gender neutral and used to determine types of bodies acceptable for different military occupations. Therefore, I argue that the ideal soldier is, in fact, heavily gendered towards male bodies, masculinity, and male heterosexuality. This ideology shapes views on what bodies are most qualified to do the work of combat, fighting, and sacrificing for the nation. And only when the idea of females doing combat enters the conversation do we see the social relations and gender assumptions that maintain the CAF's gender order and foster a culture harmful to female soldiers. For example, the underlying sexualized culture in the Forces is conducive to more severe incidents of sexual harassment and assault (Deschamps, 2015). Therefore, for cultural change to occur, we need to see a fundamental shift in the CAF's thinking of the ideal soldier and show what social relations surrounding work as a soldier will look like.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/83852
note: “THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!” GENDER INTEGRATION IN THE CANADIAN ARMED FORCES WITH A FOCUS ON THE EXPERIENCE OF FEMALE SOLDIERS IN THE COMBAT ARMS by Billie Franck B.A., The University of British Columbia, 2015 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in (Interdisciplinary Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) February 2023 © Billie Franck, 2023 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation entitled: “THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!” GENDER INTEGRATION IN THE CANADIAN ARMED FORCES WITH A FOCUS ON THE EXPERIENCE OF FEMALE SOLDIERS IN THE COMBAT ARMS submitted by Billie Franck in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies. Luís LM Aguiar, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Supervisor Carolyn MacHardy, Emeritus Supervisory Committee Member Bonar Buffam, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Supervisory Committee Member Jessica Stites-Mor, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences University Examiner iii Abstract This thesis focuses on gender integration in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) based on former female combat arms soldiers' experiences. I argue that the military institution presents itself as progressive and gender neutral but is, in fact, a gendered institution with distinct organizational thinking that maintains gender segregation. The federal government's goal of increasing the number of female soldiers employed in the CAF to 25 % by 2026 is too broad and does not address the systemic issues rendered invisible when institutional change is desired. In this thesis, I aim to demonstrate the social relations and the organizational logic that maintains the low representation of female soldiers. I do this by unpacking the division of labour based on military occupations with the least number of female soldiers. I…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2023-02
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0427251
language: eng
degree discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Aguiar, Luis L. M.
type: Text
type: Still Image
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/83852