Gender discrimination in the SANDF : women as combat soldiers in the South African Army with reference to the Western Province Command

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:As early as the unification of South Africa in 1910 enforced discrimination in the militaryhas been an issue that affected both race and gender. The advent of democracy in SouthAfrica has brought fundamental changes in spheres of governance. One of these changes isthe transformation of the public service of which the Department of Defence, in particularthe South African National Defence Force, is part.The constitutional and judicial imperatives stipulated to the government departments to berepresentative of the demographic composition of the population of South Africa. TheDepartment of Defence has provided a policy on equal opportunity and affirmative actionto redress the racial and gender imbalances of the past, to protect individual and groupsagainst unfair discrimination andto work towards achievement of employment equity.The study seeks to establish the extent and influence of gender discrimination in the SouthAfrican National Defence with particular reference to the SA Army's Western ProvinceCommand. To achieve this, the attitude of the middle and top management of the WPCommand towards the utilisation or employment of women in combat roles were assessed.The study also investigated whether the mentioned management does encourage women tobe involved or participate in combat roles.Data was collected from respondents by means of a structured questionnaire consisting of58 questions (plus 8 unstructured questions). The sample was drawn from the SA Army'sWP Command and the focus was on middle and top management.Findings of the study indicate that the SA Army's WP Command's middle and topmanagement supports the equality of men and women in general, but is reluctant to allowwomen to participate in combat roles side by side with their male counterparts. Althoughthere seems to be an understanding and support for the policies of addressing equalopportunities, traditional cultural beliefs or stereotypes about women still shape andinfluence the acceptance and the non-acceptance of women in combat rolesFinally, recommendations highlight issues of consideration when drafting policy vis-a-visthe utilisation of women as combat soldiers.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University