Gender and Politics - November 19, 2003
When we speak about politics, we are essentially speaking about power – the power to distribute scarce resources, to institutionalize particular values, and to legitimately use force or violence.
Currently more women are running for and being elected to public office, and more are obtaining political appointments than ever before. Nevertheless the percentage of women in general decision making and in the military remains small.
To the extent that men and women have different degrees of political power, they will have unequal input into political decision making, and consequently, their interests and experiences may be unequally represented in law and public policy.
The Gender Gap: Political Attitudes and Activities.
Voting – Between 1920 and 1960, men’s rate of voting exceeded women’s rate by a considerable margin, although there was a gradual increase in women’s voting rates over the four decades. During the 1960s, there was sharp increase in women’s voting rates and, by 1978, the margin of difference between women’s and men’s voting rates was just about 2 percent. Lake and Berglio have attributed this to the rise in women’s level of educational attainment during this period as well as the rapid increase in the number of women working outside the home.
In the 1980 President election, two significant changes occurred: more women than men cast ballots, and women voted significantly differently than men. 47% of women voted for Reagan compared to 55% percent of men.
54% of women voted for Clinton – while only 43% of men
Bush - women 43% men 53% men.
The gender gap involves more than voting behavior; there are particular perspectives on political issues that underlie individuals’ votes. Research consistently shows that women more than men express concern about health care, childcare, education, poverty, and homelessness. In contrast, men more than women express concern about the federal deficit, taxes, energy, defense and foreign policy. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, women have expressed greater pessimism about the economic condition of the country and have showed greater favor toward increased government activity in the form of programs to help families, even if such programs require increased taxes.
A strong and consistent gender gap also emerges with respect to issues of war and peace.
Women prefer domestic social spending over military spending. Women more than men express concern about crime and drugs. Women are also more likely than men to favor gun control laws.
Despite sex differences in these areas, on other topics, men’s and women’s political opinions are more likely to converge. For example, women and men share similar views on protecting the environment, reproductive freedom and abortion.
Other factors besides gender are race and ethnicity, social class, age, education and employment status. . Example, both African American women and African American men overwhelmingly supported Gore.
Contrary to the popular myth that men are more interested and active in politics, there are actually few differences between the sexes in their level of political activism. Although women are well represented among campaign staff and volunteers, men have traditionally dominated party conventions.
However, since so few women hold higher political offices, we need to evaluate the explanations given for this extreme difference.
Explanations of why this is include: socialization. This argument suggests that boys are told they can grow up to be president some day; the best girls can do is hope to grow up to marry the man who will be president. Therefore, they are not socialized to the possibility. However, current research found no gender differences in the political views of school-age children.
Another theory - not many role models for women
Another explanation - women have greater difficulty meeting the demands of public life given their domestic responsibilities. It is not surprising therefore that women typically enter politics at a later age than men do and the at female political candidates are more likely than men to be single, widowed or divorced.
Another explanation - women lack the credentials (education) - this doesn’t seem to be a viable argument.
Another explanation - women may be relatively scarce in public office because of prejudice and discrimination against them that may occur on two levels: among the electorate and within political offices.
Recent research demonstrates that female and male candidates are covered differently by the media. For example the media give greater coverage to female candidates' positions on what are typically considered female issues (e.g. education, drugs) and greater coverage to male Candidates' positions on so-called male issues (e.g. national security trade). However, research shows that candidates whether male of female, who receive female-typical media coverage are perceived as less viable than candidates who receive male- typical media coverage.
Prejudice and discrimination against female candidates can be found at a second level as well: within the political practices.
Research indicates the more formidable obstacles for women seeking public office today are incumbency and access to campaign funds.
It is at the state level that women have made their greatest political gain in recent years. 29.6% - state legislatures.
Federal level - (2001) slight gain- 13 in Senate, 60 in House
Women senators and representatives rarely have held leadership positionsin the federal government. One of the reasons for women's exclusion from some positions and committees is their lack of seniority.
Other positions of power - government positions - such as National Security Advisor (Condoleezza Rice) , US. Supreme Court (Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg). The Justices themselves have not done much to increase diversity in employment within the Court itself. - Majority are white and male.
Military–
Bourg and Segal -
The military is clearly recognized as a heterosexual, masculine institution. The military has played a significant role in helping to create and does play a role in sustaining, gender and sexuality stratification. The military reflects and enforces the traditional stereotypes.
Militarism perpetuates the equation between masculinity and violence and war encodes violence into the notion of masculinity generation after generation.
Women make up about 14% of active-duty personnel. More racially diverse than in prior decades.
Women have always played a military role. But during the last 40 years, there has been exansion of what roles they played.
In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, a series of events took place that greatly expanded both the number and the roles of female military personnel.
First, in 1967, Congress passed Public law 90-30 which removed the limit on the number of enlisted women and the number of promotions for women officers.
In 1973 the military draft was replaced by the all-volunteer force, causing worried military planners to turn to the recruitment of women as a means to keep enlistment up. Several court cases overturned the military’s policy of awarding dependent benefits to female personnel using different standards from those applied to male personnel.
1975 - Defense Department lifted its ban on parenting for female personnel and made discharge for pregnancy available on a voluntary basis.
In 1976 ROTC began to accept women as were military academies. Flight schools were open to women.
In 1978 the federal court struck down the Navy’s policy of barring women from sea duty.
During the Carter administration, there appeared a strong commitment to recruit women for the military which was pared down under the Reagan era.
From the 1970s to 1994 the US military utilized what was called the risk rule to determine the military jobs from which women would be barred. For the most part, these were ground combat and combat support jobs that entail substantial risk of being killed in action or captured as a prisoner of war.
In 1993 then Secretary of Defense Les Aspin, on behalf of the Clinton administration issued a directive ordering the armed services to permit women to fly aircraft in combat. In 1994 the Air Force and the Navy announced they had female pilots who were combat ready.
Also in 1994 the Army and Marine Corp opened some combat jobs to women but continued to exclude them from direct combat, such as armor, infantry, and field artillery on the grounds that they lacked the physical strength needed for these jobs and their presence would disrupt morale.
Informally, the branch makes the decision as to whether or not women can serve in combat positions.
However, despite several other exceptions – for example, women are prohibited from serving in units where the cost of renovations to accommodate them would be prohibitively expensive and in support jobs that operate and remain with direct ground combat troops – it is estimated that about 95% of military posts are open to women.
The exclusion of women from combat roles has historically had important consequences for female military personnel, since such positions command substantially higher salaries on average than support positions do. They are all critical for promotion to the highest military ranks, in fact, it has been argued that combat exclusion has been women’s greatest impediment in achieving promotions.
Many recent analysts have argued that the difference between many combat roles and combat support roles is more a matter of semantics than a reflection of the actual danger attached to the positions. For example, women were permitted to fly combat aircraft, they regularly piloted the tanker aircraft that refuel fighters. They participated in the US invasion of Panama and were commanded by a female Army captain. In 1990 and 1991 women accounted for more than 10% of the military troops deployed in the Persian Gulf crisis. Nevertheless, while the probability of women using this training increases with every military conflict that the US enters, the official exclusion of women from direct ground combat remains in place.
Currently women make up 14% of active-duty U.S. military personnel. Varies - in the Navy 94% of positions are open to women; women constitute 12% of Navy enlisted personnel and 14% of officers. Women serve on almost all classes of ships except submarines.
Army 70%, 15% of enlisted personnel and 13% of officers. , Marine Corps 62% and smallest percentage of women, 5% of enlisted women and 4 percent of officers.
A number of arguments have been made over the years to justify the exclusion of women from military combat and now from certain aspects of military combat. These include : women lack the necessary physical strength to perform adequately, ;their capacity for pregnancy and childbearing makes them inappropriate combatants. Women’s participation in combatants would reduce unit cohesion by disrupting male bonding and promoting fraternization.
MAXWAC and REFWAC studies in the 1970’s showed that women performed well and without negative impact on unit performance
Widespread sexism often in the form of sexual harassment. 75% of women in the military have personally experienced sexual harassment. Besides sexual harassment there is also non-sexual harassment. This is known as gender harassment Gender harassment refers to harassment that is not sexual, and is used to enforce traditional gender roles, or in response to the violation of those roles. This form of harassment also may aim to undermine women’s attempt at gaining power or to describe that power as illegitimately obtained or exercised. Many Army women report that gender harassment on the job is more prevalent than sexual harassment. (Laura Miller)
Laura Miller examined how men in structurally dominant positions use resistance tactics against women in structurally subordinate positions in the military. These men described themselves as unjustly constrained or controlled by military women. Furthermore, these men tend to believe that women’s power is usually gained illegitimately and that women take advantage of their gender to promote their own careers According to her research many men perceive themselves to be disadvantaged in relation to women in the military and retaliate against women in covert ways.
This behavior includes sabotage, foot-dragging, feigning, ignorance, constant scrutiny, gossip and rumors and indirect threats harassment targets women but is not sexual; often it cannot be traced to its source.
Some forms of gender harassment –
Resistance to Authority – they do not outright refuse to obey orders; yet they challenge women’s authority by not complying completely. They feign ignorance about what is expected of them, or encase in foot-dragging
Women sometimes hesitate to report uncooperative behavior because it could be interpreted as lack of leadership skills or as inability to get along with other officers. Such an appraisal in turn could affect work evaluations and promotion opportunities.
Constant Scrutiny - . Hostile men use constant scrutiny to catch individual women making mistakes and the use the mistakes to criticize the abilities of women in general. The same is not true for men.
Scrutiny as a harassment strategy is particularly safe in the military because it fits into the functioning of the organization. Once cannot be punished for seeking out and correcting errors, and it would be quite difficult to prove that women are being watched more closely than men.
Gossip and Rumors - Research on power and social interactions found that "rumors are especially likely to flourish among people who see that their fates are in other people’s hands." Army women are often the subject of untrue gossip about their sex lives.
Stories of sexual harassment or sexual activity between men and women soldiers were often framed in terms of the natural consequences of women "being there":
Rumors and gossip about sexuality thus communicated the inappropriateness of women serving among men, or implied that women’s power was often gained illegitimately through sexual favors.
Sabotage – Miller found evidence of sabotage, as a form of gender harassment, only in work fields that are nontraditional for women. Sabotage of equipment and tools was reported by women in mechanical fields.
The threats are usually communicated in a tone of concern for women’s safety, for morale, or for combat effectiveness. This concern, whether genuine or not, gives the teller some sense of safety from reprimand for his statements.
Indirect Threats – Some soldiers report that some of their fellow men would rape women who dared to enter infantry or armor units. The men almost always wrote or spoke in terms of what other men would do.
Which men are most likely to object to women’s current or expanded participation in the military? -Minority men did not vary by rank, were least likely to support the currently policy, and were most likely to prefer to allow women to volunteer for the combat arms they so desired. Men of color, regardless of rank, may be more likely than White men to identify with women, who are fellow members of a minority; or they may be less likely to feel threatened by equal opportunity issues.
Men’s Perceptions of Women’s Privileges:
Easier Physical Training Standards – Both men and women reported that women’s physical training requirements are not only different from men’s, but easier for most women to meet than men’s are for most men. Although this training is supposed to maintain physical fitness, most soldiers interpret it as a measure of strength.
Pregnancy as an Advantage -
Some men find it unfair that women have an honorable option out of the service, deployments, or single barracks that men do not have.
Better Educational Opportunities: Many men feel that restrictions on women’s roles are unfair not because they limit women, but because they appear to give women opportunities to receive more schooling than men.
Bourg and Segal - The relationships between the military, gender, and sexuality can be examined at multiple levels.
The military affects gender stratification in at least three ways:
First, it contributes to cultural definitions and images of masculinity and femininity. (e.g. warrior masculinity). This experience has included subtle and not so-subtle messages that women and homosexuals are inferior and not able to or suitable to serve their country.
Second, the military provides its members differential access to power and resources.
Third, military service has historically had strong connections with the rights inherent in U.S. citizenship.
The effects of social-structural and cultural factors on Women's military roles:
Characteristics of the military, (examples when there are shortages of qualified men, especially during times of national emergency, most nations have increased women's military roles.
Among the social-structural variables that affect women's military participation are demographic patterns, labor-force characteristics, economic factors, and family structure. High unemployment rates )especially among young men are associated with a ready supply of men to serve in the armed forces and relatively low opportunities for women in the military.
The greater family responsibilities for the average woman, the less women's representation in the armed forces. structural characteristics of society, and cultural values regarding gender and family.
A culture can exaggerate or minimize the importance of sex differences (in physical or psychological traits) and thereby justify or reject a gender-based division of social roles. The extent to which a culture continues to assign women the primary role of reproduction and childcare affects women's military roles. Shared parenting, extended family, government-sponsored parental leave, and community-supported child care are structures that enable parents to be involved in their societies without neglecting children.
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