Sexism In Military

For hundreds of years men and women alike have been subject to participate in society’s assigned gender roles. Until recently, the majority of cultures have had women performing more domestic work while men have pursued more labor specific jobs (Golden). In today’s society, there continues to be jobs that consist primarily of one gender, such as beauticians, in which women are predominant (Claire). The women’s movement and the second wave of feminism have contributed greatly in eliminating gender-specific employment (Cutler). Today, fewer jobs remain gender-specific.
Language has proven to be a large influence on all of society. By using sexist job titles people encourage jobs to be gender orientated. Society has had a history of changing word
(Huss & Cwikel). In the United States the military is opening up all jobs, including combat, to women by 2016, this is an incredible accomplishment that will hopefully encourage countries worldwide (Losey). Currently the US Air Force has opened 99% of its positions to women (Losey). They still need to open Special Tactics, Combat Control, Special Operations Weather, Combat Rescue, Para Rescue, and Tactical Air Control (Losey). By opening up these six positions alone the Air Force will open 4,350 jobs to the entire Air Force of 600,000 airmen (Losey). In order to open up these fields and create a gender-neutral standard, the Air Force is required to look at everything needed to qualify for that position (Losey). Dr. Neal Baumgartner is helping achieve this by leading a study to develop new gender-neutral requirements. Baumgartner is focused on creating science-based tests that revolve solely on physical ability. ‘”It’s Independent of body size, can that human being perform that physical task.”’(Losey) He continues to explain how the test work. ‘“If we find out that pull-ups is a good test and 12 repetitions is the number then all men, all women will have to do that to maintain their operational standards.”’(Losey) While the United States efforts aren’t going unnoticed, women still make up a small percentage of military personnel worldwide. For example in Canada women only consist of
“Although in recent years women have increased their representation in the labor market, they remain under-leveraged as a source of talent and leadership in employing organizations in nearly every country around the globe” (Festing). In male-dominated organizations, women are under high amounts of pressure to perform and prevent mistakes (Festing). Studies have also shown that women are more likely to search for a job in a career where they are less likely to be discriminated against; suggesting that women are being intimidated by male-dominated organizations (Polavieja). “Women only constitute 4.6% of CEO positions and 19.2% of board of directors at S&P’s 500 companies” (Festing). A large amount of leadership positions have lower salaries for women than for men with the same job description. This disparity is unfounded and most times detrimental to companies. Research shows that women have positive impacts on company performance due to their unique contributions to decision—making processes and their team building and communication skills (Festing). In fact, female managers are more aware of the importance of giving direct and participative feedback to employees and at the same time are also more open to receiving feedback (Festing). Women are more receptive to reciprocal communication and can concentrate on relationship building within a team, whereas men are more competitive and desire individual