Advancing Gender Considerations in Military Operations

Abstract

The U.S. military is in the beginning stages of institutionalizing gender considerations in operations and senior leaders are still developing methods to best leverage women in combat. Currently there are strategy, policy, and activity gaps at the international, national, and Department of Defense (DoD) levels that trace back to the landmark "United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325" (2000) for women, peace, and security. Furthermore, the DoD is currently seeking research to develop guidance in response to the prescribed activities of the "United States National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace, and Security." One of these prescribed activities calls for the DoD to "Leverage the participation of female U.S. military personnel to encourage and model gender integration and reach out to female and male populations in partner nations" (Obama 2011). During the war in Afghanistan, there have been numerous lessons learned from gender integration in operations. Many have come from female population engagements by military Female Engagement Teams (FETs) and Cultural Support Teams (CSTs). Analysis of these lessons learned has determined best practices and recommendations for application in ongoing and future operations. As the U.S. military continues to work bilaterally with NATO and foreign militaries, the opportunity exists for the U.S. military to study and potentially adopt methods of gender mainstreaming in operations for interoperability and insight into operations. This study seeks to answer the following primary question: How can gender mainstreaming be further integrated into U.S. military operations? Secondary research questions are as follows: (1) Why does the military need a gender approach?, (2) What did we learn in Afghanistan from integrating a gender perspective?, (3) What is NATO's policy for gender mainstreaming in operations?, and (4) What are some examples of foreign strategies for gender considerations in military operations?

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 13, 2013
Accession Number
ADA591135

Entities

People

  • Elizabeth A. Vossler

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Employment
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Interagency Coordination
  • International Law
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Military Applications
  • Military Education
  • Military Operations
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Societies
  • Students
  • Terrorists
  • United States
  • United States Government
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Gender and Food Studies
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.