Maskulinitetsstudier

disclosure). These measures indicate an understanding of the challenge of retaining women in the militaries
and also to attract women into arms in the first place. The military needs to be able to compete with other
employees in the labor market and welfare programs created to improve communication for those serving
abroad is necessary to show that family life is taken seriously and that it is possible to combine family life with
serving in the forces. As the research presented in the theoretical framework can highlight the empirical findings,
it is also clear that the countries have pointed towards many of the same challenges and it is possible to
uncover similar measures. What differ in the findings is however the width and the prioritizing of the most
important areas to act.
5.4.3 ADRESSING MASCULINITY CULTURES IN THE MILITARY
One of the research questions for this thesis is whether any of the measures taken deal with masculinity cultures.
This has turned out to be a complex issue when entering into documents and interviewing the informants.
The military is an organization that has always been dominated by men, and as laid out in the theoretical
framework, the military may constitute a form of hegemonic masculinity where boys and men are encouraged
to aspire. When joining the military many men thus experience domination of weaker individuals and tend to
be given a higher social status than those who do not. Men thus gets their masculinity confirmed (Kimmel et. al
2005:433). This perspective thus sees masculinities as constructed and as a process rather than an object with a
determined way of behavior (Connell 1995). As the common assumption in the West has connected the ideal
hegemonic masculine type to men who are white and heterosexual, where those who differ from this is views
as subordinated or marginalized, the entrance of women into the military organization may thus become object
to an assumption that women represent femininity with the characteristics of being weak and emotional
(ibid).
These perspectives on masculinity are useful tools in explaining some perspectives on challenges not only for
women who enter into the forces, but also for the forces in their work on recruiting and retaining women. The
research for this thesis has uncovered that the challenges of masculinity cultures is recognized within all the
three countries, and while some measures have been created to face these challenges directly, it is a consideration
to decide how much these cultures shall be counteracted. As it is difficult to change the existing culture
before a minority group has reached a critical level of 20 percent, it is also difficult to reach this level when the
masculinity cultures are widespread within the organization. While it on one hand is important to work towards
an environment inclusive for all, strong measures to face the masculinity cultures may indicate extensive
problems within the military organization, leading to an impression the forces is not served on having. During
the interview in Stockholm, it was highlighted how many women have also learned to adjust into the masculine
norms that exist, and that they were prepared before joining the military. The informants also said that the
impression is that both men and women want to be there as soldiers and officers, and not as a man or a woman
(Interview 2013). Even though there is an awareness of the existing masculinity cultures, it has improved for
the better during the last thirty years, and the informants remarked that not everything has to be questioned
either. Leadership thus became an issue as leaders should focus on taking advantage of these opportunities
rather than problematizing them (Interview 2013).
5.4.4 REACHING A CRITICAL MASS RATHER THAN FOCUSING ON THE EXISTING CULTURE
The framework for the situation minorities’ face in their own profession is in this thesis heavily relied on the
work by Kanter whose work has identified gender segregated dynamics, where those representing the minority
becomes marginalized and experience exclusion. Kanter uses the term of skewed groups who is characterized
by a large preponderance of one type who make up as much as 85 percent, while a subgroup make up less than
15 percent. The people of the minority group thus are defined as tokens. This model shows how women in all
the militaries in this thesis are then defined as tokens with the challenges following (Kanter 1977). According to
Kimmel, tokens are accepted because of their minority status and not despite of it (Kimmel 2004). For women
in entering into the forces this can be expressed from male colleagues through the assumption that women
have been allowed to serve because they are women, and not because they have actually fulfilled the require-
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