Combat, Cohesion and Gender

King, Anthony (2017). Combat, Cohesion and Gender. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-851376

<p>Can women be infantry soldiers? Combat is one of the most extreme forms of human activities and throughout human history it has been almost exclusively a masculine domain.</p>

<p>This research addresses this important and potentially historic issue of the increasingly active participation of women in war. In the past, women's exclusion from the infantry has typically been justified by reference to female physiology and their presumed effects on cohesion among the male soldiers. Females were seen to threaten the combat performance of male troops.</p>

<p>Physical barriers still remain for women but with the professionalisation of the armed forces and the recent pressures of operations in Afghanistan, female participation in the army and on operations has been increasingly accepted and even normalised. Canada and Denmark now allow women in the infantry and, while the UK and US still maintain their bans on females in the infantry, female British and American soldiers have increasingly served on the front line in combat situations. Through documentary, fieldwork and interview research with the armies of Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, the UK and the US, this research seeks to explore the possibilities and limits of women's participation in the infantry.<br />&nbsp;</p>

Data description (abstract)

The data collection involved three methods
a) Archival research: defence policy, military doctrine, memoirs, academic commentary
b) Interviews: 39 Male soldiers and 17 female soldiers were formally interviewed as part of this research project. c) Fieldwork observation: 40 days were spend observing training in France, Germany, UK, Canada and the US. During the course of this fieldwork, 46 informants were contacted whose comments were recorded in field notes and used in the research.

Due to the confidentiality assured to interviewees and informants and the fact that some of the material discussed in the interviews/fieldwork was classified it has been impossible to share the fieldnotes/interviews. However, a record of the key points and data has been recorded in the EOA report for this grant and is disseminated through the publications associated with this grant.

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