Socio-cultural dynamics in gender and military contexts: Seeking and understanding change

LAY SUMMARY Today, changing the culture of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is a high priority, so that all members feel respected and included and do not experience discrimination, harassment, or any form of sexual misconduct. This article looks back at the CAF experience with gender integration to see what it shows about what should be done today. Over 20 years ago, many believed the job was done, that the CAF had fully integrated women and welcomed all members, regardless of who they were. Women have served in the Canadian military for several decades; they make important contributions, and there are no formal limitations on how they contribute and what they can achieve. Although policies and practices have changed, too often, some women and men continue to experience discrimination, harassment, and sexual assault. Based on past experience, this article suggests that thinking about different ways of understanding culture in the CAF is important in paving the way for a more inclusive experience for all members.

Integration of gender considerations into Tanzania's climate and water policies

Integrating gender considerations into national policies such as climate and water policies is a critical step toward achieving gender equality, resilient systems, sustainable water access and management of climate change. In Tanzania, just like in many developing countries, women play a vital role in water management and could be more vulnerable to climate change impacts than their male counterparts. While there are few attempts in existing literature toward examining the integration of gender considerations into water and climate policies, analyzing policies' formulation process has not been given attention. Thus, this study analyzed the extent and effectiveness of gender integration in climate change and water sector policies in Tanzania. The study shows that there is a substantial acknowledgment of gender issues in the reviewed policy documents but there exist considerable gaps in terms of integrating gender issues in the documents and during formulation processes.

Women Access to Land and Legal Security of Tenure in Ohafia Abia State Nigeria

Across the developing world, rural women suffer widespread gender-based discrimination in laws, customs and practices which cause severe inequalities in their ability to access, control, own and use land and limit their participation in decision-making at all levels of land governance. Most literature on land tenure in sub-Saharan Africa has presented women as a homogenous group. This study uses cases from Ohafia to show that women have differentiated problems, needs, and statuses in their quest for land access and tenure security. Ohafia in Abia State, Nigeria was the study area. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods including household surveys, semi-structured interviews, key informant interviews and observations. The experience of women revolved around fear of been cheated (19.7%), need a supporting hand (46.8%) and need approval from their husband (33.6%). The consequences of perceived exclusion and/or marginalization of women as revealed by women owner-occupiers are women subordination (70.2%) and marginalization of widow (29.8%). The study recommends the promotion of gender integration at all levels of projects and programmes by integrating gender perspectives in all future activities as it is required, for example, the FAO Gender Plan of Action and the UNCHS. To ensure gender inclusiveness in project and programme planning and in policy and decision-making, aiming towards a balanced representation of men and women in these bodies. Keywords: Land, Land Rights, Land Tenure, Women, Legal Security of Tenure

Unpacking the perceived benefits and costs of integrating gender into conservation projects: voices of conservation field practitioners

Many in the conservation sphere have noted that robust and gender-equitable stakeholder engagement is crucial in achieving conservation outcomes, ensuring project sustainability and supporting human well-being. However, despite policies, international agreements and increasing requirements of donors, gender is still often viewed as an add-on rather than as a fundamental element of effective conservation. In an effort to overcome this, Conservation International has invested in nearly 20 project sites since 2014 to support targeted gender integration into existing conservation projects. We conducted a survey with practitioners across these sites to examine the barriers to and enablers of gender integration, and practitioners’ perceptions of the benefits and challenges involved in this. Our findings demonstrate the importance of both external drivers (funding requirements) and a supportive environment (capacity building, technical and financial support) in incentivising a focus on gender. Respondents also reported a suite of benefits (e.g. increased participation, higher quality of the project) and costs (mainly financial) related to gender integration. In documenting these efforts to build gender-related capacity, and the associated benefits and challenges, we highlight the importance of gender-responsive conservation initiatives, and evaluate a method of achieving this. As conservation practitioners may be more inclined to listen to each other (given their shared objectives) rather than to gender specialists, this research can help to shift practitioner dialogue and conservation practice to be more open and responsive to gender.

Unpacking the Complexity of Gender Integration in the U.S. Military Using Discourse Analysis: The Case of Servicewomen’s Talk Around Having to Prove Themselves

A quasi-idiomatic expression ‘women have to prove themselves’ reflects various performance pressures and heightened visibility of women functioning in gendered professional spaces as advocated by tokenism theory. It is an example of how discriminatory practice – according to which competent and qualified women entering the culturally masculine professions are explicitly and implicitly expected to work harder for any recognition – gets discoursed in language and becomes a “rhetorically powerful form of talk” (Kitzinger 2000: 124). This paper explores the question: what is it that U.S. servicewomen functioning in the culturally hypermasculine space need to do to prove themselves? To this end, qualitative semi-structured interviews with women veterans of the recent Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts are qualitatively scrutinized with the methods of discourse analysis and conversation analysis to 1) identify practices that U.S. servicewomen engage in to symbolically (re-)claim their place and status in the military, i.e., to prove they belong; 2) find out how the talk around proving emerged in the course of the conversation and how it was further interactionally sustained and/or dealt with in talk-in-interaction. The findings of the micro-level analysis – interpreted through the lenses of tokenism and the category of the ‘honorary man’ – reveal women’s complex and nuanced struggle to fit and find acceptance in the military culture of hypermasculinity. They also re-engage with the ideas of tokenism by demonstrating that various acts of proving, reflecting women’s token status, may concurrently and paradoxically be a means to earn honorary man status.

A 10-year longitudinal evaluation of science policy interventions to promote sex and gender in health research

Background Over the past decade, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) has implemented multicomponent interventions to increase the uptake of sex and gender in grant applications. Interventions included mandatory reporting on applicant forms, development of resources for applicants and evaluators, and grant review requirements. Here, we aim to inform science policy implementation by describing the 10-year outcomes and lessons learned from these interventions. Methods This is a prospective longitudinal study. The population is all applicants across 15 investigator-initiated CIHR competitions from 2011 to 2019 and grant evaluators from 2018 to 2019. Quantitative data were derived from applicants’ and grant evaluators’ mandatory reporting of sex and gender integration in the grants management database. The application was the unit of analysis. Trends in sex and gender uptake in applications were plotted over time, stratified by research area. Univariate logistic regression was used to assess associations between the sex of the applicant and the uptake of sex and gender, and the latter with funding success. Qualitative review of the quality and appropriateness of evaluators’ comments informed the development of discipline-specific training to peer review committee members. Feedback was compiled from a subset of evaluators on the perceived usefulness of the educational materials using a brief questionnaire. Results Since 2011, 39,390 applications were submitted. The proportion that reported integration of sex rose from 22 to 83%, and gender from 12 to 33%. Population health research applications paid the greatest attention to gender (82%). Across every competition, applications with female principal investigators were more likely to integrate sex (odds ratio [OR] 1.60, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.50–1.63) and gender (OR 2.40, 95% CI 2.29–2.51) than those who identified as male. Since 2018, applications that scored highly for the integration of sex (OR 1.92, 95% CI 1.50–2.50) and gender (OR 2.53, 95% CI 1.83–3.50) were more likely to be funded. Qualitative observations revealed persistent conflation of the terms sex and gender. Eighty-six percent of evaluators appreciated the tailored discipline-specific coaching. Conclusions A number of policy interventions improved sex and gender uptake in grant applications, with higher success rates observed over time for applications that integrated sex and gender. Other funders’ action plans around sex and gender integration may be informed from our experiences of the timing, type and targets of the different interventions, specifically those directed at evaluators.

COED SPORTS AS AN ‘INTEGRATION TOOL’ IN HELLENIC MILITARY HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

<p>This study focuses on women’s integration in the military through sports, and particularly coed sports in the Hellenic Military Higher Education Institutions: 1) the Hellenic Army Academy, 2) the Hellenic Military Academy of Corps Officers, 3) the Hellenic Military Nursing Academy, 4) the Hellenic Naval Academy, and 5) the Hellenic Air Force Academy. We argue that coed sports (mixed-gender teams) can be used as an integration tool in military institutions, although research on this topic is scarce. Our study begins with a literature review on gender, the military, and sport combining a qualitative and quantitative approach to facilitate a better understanding of how women and men navigate and perceive the meaning of their mixed-gender military sport experience in the Hellenic Military Higher Education Institutions. Initially, twelve Greek women, active officers in the Armed Forces, took part in a series of semi-structured interviews. The twelve women, all high-ranking military officers today—between the ages of 25 to 49—were randomly chosen. Subsequently, a total of 120 active officers of both genders responded to the Greek version of the "Group Environment Questionnaire" (Angelonidis, 1995). From a total of 18 questions, nine were selected to examine gender integration through sport. The main research question is whether sport in the five military higher education academies/schools in Greece contributes to gender integration as perceived and understood by the 120 participants (female and male officers). The findings showed that integration is a process involving non-isolation, meaning acceptance of the gender subject (the officer cadet/military student) regardless of his/her gender into the team, as opposed to his/her exclusion, and as a result the union-unity-acceptance in a sport team of all the subjects (officer cadets of both genders). According to the results of the analysis, there is a statistically significant interaction between the variables 'joint participation of men and women in sports' and the 'integration of women' in the five Hellenic Military Higher Education Institutions. The results of this study indicate that mixed-gender military sport programs serve as a means for gender integration, unity, and cohesion. Other than strengthening physical capacity, fitness and performance, the findings confirm that coed military sport activities could prevent sexism; eliminate or reduce gender harassment, discrimination, and stereotypes; strengthen interpersonal communication/relationships and teamwork; reinforce team and social cohesion, unity, and cooperation skills.</p><p> </p><p>&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt; Article visualizations:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0765/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</p>

Examining the Barriers to Gender Integration in Agriculture, Climate Change, Food Security, and Nutrition Policies: Guatemalan and Honduran Perspectives

Gender mainstreaming is seen, at international level, as critical to achieving national development goals and addressing key global challenges such as climate change and food and nutrition insecurity in the agriculture sector. Our study examined the barriers leading to poor gender mainstreaming and potential solutions in policies applying to gender, agriculture, climate change, food security and nutrition, in both Guatemala and Honduras. We used a case study approach to analyze the barriers to gender integration in these governments' policies. Based on semi-structured interviews and policy document analysis, we conducted a methodology based on policy mix, policy integration and policy translation. Results show that, despite having made multiple international commitments on gender issues and having gender-labeled policy and governmental gender bodies, gender mainstreaming in the policy cycle is lagging. There are multiple barriers of a different nature and at different levels that explain the lack of gender integration in the policy cycle, related and linked to: (1) policy translation from the international level; (2) structural policy barriers at national level; (3) behaviors and corruption; and (4) lack of knowledge and capacity. Solutions to address these barriers have been identified. Our results confirmed the literature findings and also introduce new elements such as the importance of considering the nature of the relationship (purely technical and/or political) between governments and international cooperation actors to evaluate the level of gender integration in policy. Furthermore, we stress that for key informants, there are no (easy) solutions to redress the poor gender integration strategies implemented. Finally, we noted that no solutions were provided relating to structural racism and machismo, religious extremism, power groups, and censorship of civil society.

Gender intentional approaches to enhance health social enterprises in Africa: a qualitative study of constraints and strategies

BackgroundHealth social enterprises are experimenting with community health worker (CHW) models that allow for various income-generating opportunities to motivate and incentivize CHWs. Although evidence shows that improving gender equality contributes to the achievement of health outcomes, gender-based constraints faced by CHWs working with social enterprises in Africa have not yet been empirically studied. This study is the first of its kind to address this important gap in knowledge.MethodsWe conducted 36 key informant interviews and 21 focus group discussions between 2016 and 2019 (for a total of 175 individuals: 106 women and 69 men) with four health social enterprises in Uganda and Kenya and other related key stakeholders and domain experts. Interview and focus group transcripts were coded according to gender-based constraints and strategies for enhanced performance as well as key sites for intervention.ResultsWe found that CHW programs can be more gender responsive. We introduce theGender Integration Continuum for Health Social Enterprisesas a tool that can help guide gender equality efforts. Data revealed female CHWs face seven unique gender-based constraints (compared to male CHWs): 1) higher time burden and lack of economic empowerment; 2) risks to personal safety; 3) lack of career advancement and leadership opportunities; 4) lack of access to needed equipment, medicines and transport; 5) lack of access to capital; 6) lack of access to social support and networking opportunities; and 7) insufficient financial and non-financial incentives. Data also revealed four key areas of intervention: 1) the health social enterprise; 2) the CHW; 3) the CHW’s partner; and 4) the CHW’s patients. In each of the four areas, gender responsive strategies were identified to overcome constraints and contribute to improved gender equality and community health outcomes.ConclusionsThis is the first study of its kind to identify the key gender-based constraints and gender responsive strategies for health social enterprises in Africa using CHWs. Findings can assist organizations working with CHWs in Africa (social enterprises, governments or non-governmental organizations) to develop gender responsive strategies that increase the gender and health outcomes while improving gender equality for CHWs, their families, and their communities.