Canada's defence policy, Strong, Secure, Engaged, emphasizes the importance of leveraging Canada's diversity to strengthen the Canadian Armed Forces. Currently, women in the Canadian military are underrepresented across most elements and occupations, especially in the combat arms occupations, including among officers and non-commissioned personnel in combat units such as infantry, armoured corps, artillery, and combat engineering. Research suggests that the benefits associated with the inclusion of women in combat arms occupations include an increase in collective intelligence, operational effectiveness, task cohesion, and diversity (Egnell, 2016; NATO, 2021). This article explores the gender gap in the Canadian combat arms by examining the findings from two recent qualitative studies on the perceptions of women in the Regular Force and Primary Reserve. The authors analyze female military personnel's perceptions of women serving in the combat arms, and the ways to increase their inclusion in the military. The key findings reveal the following themes on women's perceptions of women serving in the combat arms: great job for those who want it; challenging environment (e.g., working within a masculinized culture, necessary toughness, the "pink list", being treated differently, and family loyalty); unique challenges faced by women in combat roles (e.g., combat takes a toll on women's mental and physical health); and benefits of women's participation in multinational operations. The discussion highlights the need to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion, promote a culture change that fosters inclusion in the combat arms, and increase operational effectiveness through training and policies.
Barbara T. Waruszynski is a senior Defence Scientist with Director General Military Personnel Research and Analysis under Chief of Military Personnel in the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND). Barbara has over 25 years of scientific research experience, specializing in psychosocial research for the advancement of defence and security, and science and technology. Her research areas include (team) diversity and inclusion, harassment and discrimination, gender integration, racism, ethnic intolerance and inclusion in multinational military contexts, and teamwork and collaboration in defence and scientific communities. She leads high priority departmental and international research projects and led a NATO team for four years under the Human Factors and Medicine (HFM) Research Task Group (RTG) 301, where she produced a Technical Report on ethnic intolerance and ethnic inclusion in multinational military settings, titled Military Diversity in Multinational Defence Environments: From Ethnic Intolerance to Inclusion. Recently, Barbara was awarded the 2023 Deputy Minister/Chief of Defence Staff Organizational Culture Award from DND for her research on diversity and inclusion in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). In 2012, Barbara was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her research on team performance and collaboration in defence and security in the CAF. Her doctoral dissertation, Collaboration in Scientific Research: Exploring the Factors that Influence Effective Collaboration during a Period of Transformational Change, was nominated by Royal Roads University for the 2018 Canadian Association for Graduate Studies/Proquest-UMI Distinguished Dissertation Award. The study findings continue to inform federal departmental policies, practices, and programs with the goal of improving how collaboration in scientific research is carried out across the federal community. In 2022, Barbara was part of the Canadian Women in Science (WIS) Task Force and WIS Learning Lab to help develop a WIS Toolkit to cultivate greater equity, diversity, and inclusion in the federal scientific community, which won the Fighting Oppression Award from the Canadian Association of Labour. She is the principal editor of Team Diversity and Inclusion in Defence and Security: International Perspectives. She is a highly published author and has given over 150 presentations across DND, the CAF, the Canadian Federal Government, and international fora on her research. Barbara holds a Doctor of Social Sciences degree from Royal Roads University (2017), Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. She received her Master of Arts in Sociology (1990) and Bachelor of Arts in Sociology (1988) from Concordia University, Montreal, Québec, Canada.
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