Maskulinitetsstudier

ments. In the Norwegian Forces, there seem to be an assumption that quotas for female soldiers are more
widespread than what is actually the case (Interview 2013).
As Kanter is highly concerned about reaching a critical level for the minority group, this perspective has also
been object to criticism as is may fail to see the backlash from the dominant group, a perspective expressed by
Blablock who believe that an increase in numbers from the minority group will lead to the dominant group
feeling threatened, and will in turn increase the discrimination in forms of sexual harassment, wage inequalities
and limited opportunities for promotion (Yoder 1991:1789). This may create difficulties for the military’s when
decision upon a strategy for recruiting and retaining women. While recruitment is of a quantitative character,
the retaining deals with the qualitative content and it can be a challenge to find the right way to go. The analysis
of the policy documents uncover that while all the countries express concern and plans for action on the
retention part of it, the Norwegian government seem eager to increase the percentage of women and the
impression is thus that it is a first priority, instead of being able to build a culture that is prepared to face this
increase. An assumption may thus be that if the focus is mainly on reaching the set objective on a given percentage,
the recruitment and quantitative goal is reached, but the forces will then again face a challenge in
being able to retain these women.
5.4.5 IMPLEMENTING TOP DOWN
As policy documents and informants in positions within the government and armed forces have been the basis
for my study, a top down perspective has thus been the most logical and most purposeful way to go about the
analysis. The aim of the thesis is not to uncover the impressions and experiences of women in the military
where a bottom up approach would have been a natural way to grasp the task. The aim of this thesis is however
to look at the policies created and the measures set out. The implementation processes is also seen as going
downwards from state structures. While the government and policy makers as well as the military organization
have created the basis for my study, this has also been at the levels where the majority of actions have been
taken. Table 2 present an overview where measures found are heavily divided between the levels of government
and the national leadership within the forces. While policies obviously need to be set out at higher levels,
few initiatives seem to have been taken at more local levels to recruit and retain women. As the policies are
created and there are international commitments to follow, the work is left to lower levels to be properly implemented.
Key factors for successful policy implementation are thus crucial to be fulfilled in terms of commitment,
capacity and support, from all involved levels (Warwick 1982 in AWN s.a). While the international
commitment represents key stakeholders supporting the objective and the capacity can be trained or by employing
expertise, Mc Laughlin (1987) finds commitment to be the most crucial factor for a policy to be successful
(Mc Laughlin 1998 in AWN s.a).
To determine whether enough commitment has been given on the issue of increasing female participation is
difficult, as it has not been possible to uncover whether all of the measures set out has been followed up as
intended. This partly due to the fact that action plans have been the basis for the thesis, while it is also a result
of how an organization like the military is careful in giving out information. This thesis must therefore settle
with indications on whether the necessary tools are present. Based on the findings there seem to be a lack of
sanctions and tools to enforce the plans set out. Vedung’s classification of instruments for policy implementation
seems to cover the instrument used by the Norwegian government which is information. The emphasis
here is on offering insights into consequences of behavior and to influence people through knowledge and
persuasion (Bemelmans-Videc et.al 2010:8). This is performed through the emphasis on the military’s need for
diversity as outlined in chapter 4, where politicians have chosen a soft line with a hope of spreading knowledge
rather than threaten the forces with regulation and economic means.
5.4.6 IS THERE A BEST PRACTISE
It was outlined in the theoretical framework that evaluation is crucial when looking at policy making and policy
implementation. Evaluation may further refer to both the product which is the policy or program, or the pro-
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