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Military needs a cultural transformation to address gender-based violence
Author: Lindy Heinecken
Published: 22/03/2021

The Ministerial Task Team Report on Sexual Harassment, Sexual Abuse and Sexual Offences within the Department of Defence was launched recently. Commenting on the report, Prof Lindy Heinecken (Sociology and Social Anthropology) argues in an article for Mail & Guardian (19 March) that a cultural transformation is needed to address gender-based violence in the South African National Defence Force.

  • Read the article below or click here for the piece as published.

​Lindy Heinecken*

Institutional gender-based violence in the military is a long-standing issue which continues to pose a risk not only to women in uniform, but where members of the SANDF are deployed. Despite awareness campaigns, policies and regulations to address this, incidences of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) continue to rise. The Ministerial Task Team (MTT) Report on Sexual Harassment, Sexual Abuse and Sexual Offences within the Department of Defence (2020), highlights some of the reasons, failures and possible measures to address this scourge. While this is now receiving the attention it deserves, the military needs to undergo a cultural transformation to address gender based violence. As pointed out 'a culture of sexual violence' has taken hold.

Military cultures are embedded in the military hierarchy which engenders a culture of cohesion, compliance and subordination. This serves as a deterrent in reporting instances of sexual harassment and abuse for various reasons. Women face the situation that when they report incidences of sexual violence, they are labelled, scorned and face social exclusion, which partly explains why SEA goes under reported. The unwillingness to report instances of sexual harassment and abuse fuels a culture of impunity. By ignoring, or under-reporting instances of SEA contributes to the perseverance of systematic aggression and violence against women.  Therefore, it is essential that the existing mechanisms of redress address function effectively. But, as the MTT report highlights, mechanisms of redress are deficient and many women feel that no action would be taken, or the complaint would take a long time to process. 

Overall, women lack faith in the existing mechanisms to address sexual misconduct, including military leadership, leading to a reluctance to report such issues. An informal 'code of silence' exist were sexual harassment is seen as part of everyday culture. Women in the military typically do not want to cause 'gender trouble', or be viewed as victims that need protection. Added to this, my research over the years has shown that gendered norms of masculinity, associated with strength, violence and aggression, the sexual objectification and denigration of women, fuels gender stereotypes and discrimination. For example, physically their comparative lack of strength and endurance is seen as a liability. Psychologically and emotionally, women are seen as 'less' wired for war. Besides this, men (and some women) perceive women as a 'gendered' security risk, by not only weakening the capacity of sections and platoons, but making them more vulnerable to attack. Such discourses that define women as weak and physically vulnerable, incapable of protecting themselves erodes women's agency and keeps women 'in their place'.

The crux of managing gender integration in the military today is not just about equality, but the added value women bring to the military that can improve military effectiveness and decision-making.  However, this is compromised where military culture expects them to assimilate masculine norms and values to be viewed as a competent soldier. By merely fitting into the masculine organisation and exchanging major aspects of their gender identity, without men having to do likewise, maintains the gender gap. This entails not only embracing diversity, but dismantling those structures, practices and cultures that disempower women. At the heart of this is not only the privileging of masculinities, but the negative effects of sexism and patriarchy.

In highly patriarchal societies like South Africa, these continue to define and influence gender relations in the military. Typically, where women threaten the power relations of men, this evokes different forms of resistance and discrimination. In everyday life, women in in the SANDF report how they experience their leadership or authority affected by increased scrutiny, sabotage, sexual harassment, social isolation and exclusion. Sexism remains rife and women experience various forms of sexual harassment, which undoubtedly has a negative effect on their morale and careers.

While great strides have been made in improving the number of women serving in the military, the ultimate goal of gender mainstreaming, which is the transformation of gender norms in the military, remains elusive. The increased presence of women has not translated into processes that tackle gendered inequalities and contribute to the transformation of the military. Women continue to come up against a barrage of challenges that prohibit them from infusing alternative values into military culture. The only way to challenge this is for women to adopt a more assertive stance in order to influence organisational practices and decision-making. However, few are prepared to adopt this 'risky strategy' as it may result in their effective segregation, either imposed from the outside or self-induced.

Few women in the SANDF have been willing to take on this position. The easier option has been to 'perform' and stylize their behaviour in accordance with the identity practices of the masculine image of the (combat) soldier. Orna Sasson-Levy (2003) summarizes this aptly when she says that women in the military typically have to 'shape their gender identities according to the hegemonic masculinity of the combat soldier through three interrelated practices: the mimicry of combat soldiers' bodily and discursive practices; the need to distance themselves from traditional femininity; and to trivialize sexual harassment'. This hinders the displacement of gendered dichotomies necessary to bring about a transformative change in the manner in which military personnel are socialised into becoming soldiers and in terms of the roles they are expected to perform today.

Although, one does see a shifting of gender binaries as the performative act of being a soldier transcends sex and gender, this has not shifted the power dynamics sufficiently to bring about a transformation in gender relations. As Cynthia Enloe points out 'men are the military, women are in the military'. Where masculinity continues to form the bedrock of military culture, gender inequality and women's subordination will persist, and so too sexual exploitation and abuse. Putting in place policies and practices to address may deter and address this, but not the culture that perpetuates it.

  • Photo: Female combat troops of the South African Contingent in MONUSCO on foot and mobile patrol. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Prof Lindy Heinecken is Chair of the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Stellenbosch University.