Men, Women And The Changing Shape Of Military Muscle

More and More Necessary

Women make up 10% of the UK Navy's Submarine service. A new report reviews what's gone on from 2014-2020. It ain't pretty.

Getting a male-dominated culture to adapt to a degree of gender balance is a tough call. Old habits and behaviours die hard, and you hear of things that have disappeared from most self-respecting companies (not all). Here's a sobering list from the report:

• A married colleague exposed himself on a female's bed. The XO - or second in command - allegedly told her to "be quiet" when she "shouted about it"

• A second in command regularly asked for sexual favours from a female member of staff and left "naked pictures of models" for her

• Senior officers "openly" making "sexual gestures" to women in their command

• When a female colleague asked to be excused for a medical appointment, one officer allegedly said if it was to attend a smear test they could "all get together" and perform a "cervical exam" on the wardroom table

Below is a 2-part FORBES article I wrote in 2020 on the push to balance the world's militaries. As the world, and wars, heat up, it seems more relevant than ever.

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What’s the most gender balanced military in the world today? Israel. Why? Because it was – exceptionally - born balanced. The rest of the Western world’s military systems have been working to integrate women into their entirely male-dominated design decades. Their attempts capture lessons drawn from eight countries’ militaries: Australia, Canada, Israel, Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, U.K., and the U.S. This holds precious insights and fascinating parallels for the business world – and anyone working to balance heavily male-dominated organizations.

They are pulled together in a fascinating book edited by Robert Egnell, Vice Chancellor/President at the Swedish Defence University, and Mayesha Alam, Researcher at Yale, entitled Women and Gender Perspectives in the Military: An International Comparison. I discovered the book while doing some work with one national defense force, and I was most struck by the complete replication of issues I’ve been working on in the corporate world for the past 20 years. If a bit more extreme. “It’s the final bastion of patriarchy,” says Egnell, “which puts the military at the very heart of gender issues.” And it’s key. "Simply, it’s about making militaries adaptable, agile, forward-looking, and well suited to meeting the security challenges of the 21st century," adds Alam.

I will summarize a small part of their findings, as well as conversations I had with Egnell, in two blogs: first, WHY militaries are gender balancing. Second, HOW they are going about it.